Faithfully Spartan
by pjmb13
Summary: A Spartan on a mission for ONI finds Forerunner technology and ends up in a different universe, but the mission is still the same. Protect and defend humanity. Author's note: I have come back and edited my first story to make some changes that I think would improve the tone and flow of the story.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first story. This is a HALO Buffy crossover. I appreciate all constructive comments and editorials. I have discovered from writing that to become a decent writer you must have no self-esteem :-)

I just want to say thanks to the creators, writers and designers of both the HALO and Buffy franchises. They have provided me with hours of enjoyment and entertainment. All characters are the intellectual property of their respective creaors and publishers; this story may not be sold or distributed on a profit-making basis.

Thanks to all that read this story..

* * *

**Faithfully Spartan**

**Chapter 1**

_"There has to be something on one of those god-damned so-called Forerunner planets that we can use against the Covenant!" – Unnamed ONI high-ranking official to ONI research scientist._

_"You have been called upon to serve, you will be trained... and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the protectors of Earth and all her colonies..." – Dr. Catherine Halsey speaking to Spartan-II candidates_

_**Planet Catalog Name PX-2235 – November 6, 2552: 1322 hrs. Local Time**_

The noise came through my helmet com system… "Si…ra…3 res…ond?" The noise repeated again and this time was much clearer "Sierra-113 respond?" "Requesting SITREP?"

Taking a moment to gather myself, I spoke "Sierra-113 responding… Current situation fluid… In contact with enemy forces… Bravo team has taken heavy casualties… 6 KIA… 4 WIA… 8 Effectives left."

The unseen voice on the other end replied back, "Roger that Sierra-113… What is your status? Are you still able to provide rear guard support?"

"I'm at full effectiveness and still able to provide rear guard cover." "We are currently holding enemy forces in place." Taking a moment to pause, I continued, "I'm requesting Bravo team withdrawal to designated pickup LZ Victor-Tango-4 and I will continue rear guard support solo…"

"Negative Sierra-113… Bravo team will remain in place to provide support for completion of the mission."

I replied back, "Bravo team has taken too many casualties and is a liability to rear guard support mission."

The now becoming annoying voice repeated, "Negative Sierra-113… This is a command authority override… Bravo team will remain in place…"

I cut the channel and switched over to the tactical channel and called out, "Bravo team this is Sierra-113… do you copy?"

"Bravo-One actual here…"

"You heard?" I said trying to keep the sound of disgust out of my voice.

The voice called Bravo-One replied, "Yup… sucks to be us." "What's the call?"

Taking a moment to look at my dwindling number of options and consequences, I replied back, "Disregard last command… pack up your wounded and haul ass back to the LZ. I will provide cover support and complete rear guard mission myself."

The voice on the other end, sounded somewhat reluctant in his response, "I dislike disobeying orders, but I really hate even more running out and leaving you behind…"

"No worries…" I replied, "I take full responsibility for the decision."

"But…"

"No buts… It's my call." I replied cutting off Bravo-One's response.

"I will provide cover fire in 5 minutes… Be ready to fall back…" I added.

"Roger that… Sierra-113… and good luck."

I took a moment to use my suit sensors to scan the battlefield before me. I looked over the remnants of three enemy attacks on mine and Bravo team's defensive positions. I knew that we could probably holdout at least another two attacks, but I didn't want to sacrifice anymore of Bravo team's people for a mission that was quickly attaining cluster-fuck status.

It was at this particular moment that another voice interrupted my thoughts. A very clear, loud and annoyed female voice… "Taking it upon yourself to decide matters… again"

"You have a lousy sense of timing to start critiquing my decision making process… Plus those orders sucked…"

"You have to learn to play nice with others," teased the female voice. "Also it's my ass on the line here too you know."

"You don't have any ass to speak off, figuratively… you're an AI… a very annoying AI at that" I replied.

"But you would get very lonely out here without me to keep you company."

"Adriana… Can you take a moment from your busy schedule and give me an analysis of our current situation?"

"Why most certainly" came the reply. Almost immediately data appeared on my helmet HUD.

_***************Mission "Briar Patch" Review********************_

_1) Two (2) UNMSC fire teams (Alpha & Bravo) and one (1) Spartan (Sierra-113). Provide ground escort and support to ONI recon/research team to planet cataloged "PX-2235"_

_2) PX-2235 thought to be former "Forerunner" planet._

_3) Investigate planet for potential alien tech and recover for further study._

_4) If possible avoid contact with hostile Covenant forces._

_5) Protect ONI team and any recovered tech at all costs._

Further data displayed on my HUD…

_* From analysis of combat and SIGINT obtained. Mission team has encountered at least one (1) full battle group of Covenant forces on PX-2235. Using current order and force parameters, current estimate of mission success at less than 10%._

_* Retrieval of ONI team and recovered artifacts considered mission priority. Sacrifice of support fire teams and Spartan considered within acceptable parameters._

_* If Spartan support remains behind to provide rear guard support for other unit(s) withdrawal then estimate of mission success rises to 25%._

Well there it was… I knew that from the initial briefing that this mission had a bad smell to it, but when your race is fighting for its survival then sometimes you have to suck it up and take one for the race. That is what Spartans were made to do.

Facing my limited options, I started formulating my strategy and decisions based on those options. I put another call on the tactical band, "Bravo-One… anyone home?"

"Bravo-One here..."

"You almost ready to move?"

"We're all packed and ready to move on your call. Just give the word."

"You go into two minutes… I will lay down cover fire to keep them distracted and you head for the LZ."

"Roger that… Sierra-113"

"Bravo-One… When you reach the LZ, can you dump any extra ammo as I will be doing a run and gun towards the LZ and will need a refill by the time I get there. Do you copy?"

"Copy that Sierra-113. We'll leave the whole store."

"Thanks Bravo-One…"

I did a final weapon and ammo check. At the start of the mission I was not sure about giving up my old trusty MA5 assault rifle, for a new weapon prototype, but the new M41A pulse rifle had made me a convert. The scuttlebutt was that the M41A was developed from an idea that a weapons designer had gotten from watching an old 20th century vid about some marines fighting space aliens… who knew.

I was unsure when they first handed me the weapon, but the new magazine capacity (99 vs. 32 rounds) was a bonus, but the final selling feature was the 30mm over and under grenade launcher (4 round capacity). That had proven an unpleasant surprise to the first Covenant forces that we had encountered. The new rifle had been a force multiplier, but when you are horribly outnumbered, it can only make up a small difference, but in a Spartan's hands, this new weapon was like giving a painter a new brush and a Spartan's medium was creating chaos and death. It was now time to create art…

I moved to a firing position and used my HUD to pick my target areas. I used my grenade launcher to drop some High Explosive (HE) calling cards on the dug-in Covenant troops. The enhanced audio sensors on my suit picked up some of their screams and curses as the grenades went off.

I called out, "Bravo-One… move your team now!"

I heard the call out over the Bravo team channel... "Bravo team… Time to leave marines!"

I put Bravo team at the back of my mind. I had them marked off as friendlies on my display HUD, but I had other worries right now. I knew that staying in one place would allow the Covenant to eventually surround and overwhelm me. I had to shoot and move to stay alive and also buy Bravo team and the rest of the mission time to get to the LZ and get off this rock. I would worry about leaving later; right now I had to focus on shooting and staying alive.

I kept firing short bursts at Covenant positions. The one drawback with the M41A pulse rifle is that even with a larger mag capacity, if you went full rock and roll (full auto) you could burn through a 99-round clip in a few seconds.

"Adriana… Can you use the recon maps to plot us a route to conduct a fighting retreat back to the LZ, but draw out the time and keep us in cover?"

"I'm already working on it… I'll plot the way points on your helmet NAV display."

"That's a good girl… you're always two steps ahead of me."

WHAMM! As explosions came down near my position raining dirt and debris on me.

"Michael! We have Elites moving up on our left…250m and closing."

"_Damn! They must have spotted Bravo team pulling out and are trying to pursue._" I thought immediately assessing the situation.

"So much for best laid plans…" I muttered. I moved up to take out the Elites or at least distract them from following Bravo team.

Using my training and enhanced speed, I moved from cover to cover to try and flank the Elites. I moved up to a new position 100m to my left and opened up my "goodie bag". I pulled out a couple of frag grenades and pulled the pin on the first one. Using my helmet display, I calculated the wind direction and speed. Using my enhanced strength, I threw the first grenade. I immediately followed up with the second grenade.

Two large explosions followed with in seconds of each other taking out most of the Elites and forcing the survivors to take cover. I had their attention…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**_Planet PX-2235 – 2 hrs. later…_**

If the Covenant wasn't pissed off at the start of this fight they were certainly pissed now...

I had forced back their lead elements and they seemed to be pausing and planning. I took the respite with pleasure and again took stock of my situation.

"Adriana, how are we doing?"

"Do you want the truth or THE TRUTH?"

Even at a time like this, this pain in the ass AI could bring a smile to my face. "I want THE TRUTH" as I played along.

"Current situation is that all surviving human force elements have made the LZ and are currently evacuating via Pelicans to the _UNSC Fortitude_, which is currently hidden in stationary polar orbit. Estimated 30 minutes before all forces evacuated. Current estimates of enemy force casualties are at 200+ KIA."

"…and the bad news" I added.

"Main Covenant forces are still in the process of landing and assembling planet side. I am picking up increased signal traffic, which indicates that Covenant will be moving again in an estimated 10-20 minutes. Ammo status is a concern. Currently five spare clips plus what is loaded for the M41A. Four frag grenades. Two Covenant plasma grenades scrounged. M90 tactical shotgun 8 rounds loaded and another 32 spares. M90 magnum pistol… 5 full clips including 1 loaded."

"Should be enough to buy the needed 30 minutes and then some to get to the LZ to reload and then…"

"Then what?" interrupted Adriana

"Then we find a way off this rock… Adriana, what can you pull up on the ruins and excavations sites on this planet?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I'm thinking of conducting a hit and run guerilla campaign against the Covenant and I need to start planning some fall back positions and places to stash ammo and supplies. That is until I can find us a ride off this dirt ball."

"From the advance scouts, the orbital recon and what I was able "to borrow" from the ONI research computers, we are pretty confident that this was a Forerunner planet… what they referred to as a Shield World."

"Shield World?" I stated.

Adriana sighed, "Yes… a Shield World. Do you even pay attention in the briefing sessions?"

"I use that time to catch up on my beauty sleep… can we continue… please?"

"Why yes, thank you, I will… A Forerunner Shield World is thought to have been a protected military installation created to fight the Flood. According to information obtained by John-117 and my AI counterpart Cortanna from their encounters on the HALO installation, these Shield worlds were armed and protected to the teeth."

"Not much left here it seems… Pretty barren planet"

"Well, yes it seems that way" replied Adriana.

She continued on, "Original scans by our advance recon scouts picked up no life signs, but did pickup what appeared as minor power signatures. Further analysis indicated that in fact the signatures were being masked and indicated massive power sources inside the planet. We know from other Forerunner archeology sites that they were a highly advanced race and that any technology that we can obtain and reverse engineer would be an immense strategic advantage against the Covenant. Just before the Covenant forces entered planetary orbit, the ONI research team had located what they thought was a control room."

"Do you have the co-ordinates for this control room?" I asked.

"All ready plotted and loaded into your NAV display as NAV Point Alpha-One."

One hour later, I reached the LZ. My timing was good (or bad depending on your point of view). All surviving human forces had been evacuated. Adriana had picked up a laser com-sat signal from the _UNSC Fortitude_ indicating that all Pelicans had made it back and they were heading out of orbit to make a Slipspace jump.

I was all alone, but true to Bravo-One's word, they had left a large stash of ammo and food behind. The timing was good as I was down to my last M41A clip and I didn't want to go to the shotgun as that would mean that I would be almost face to face with the Covenant.

"Adriana, SITREP on Covenant positions?"

"You gained some time and breathing space after the last firefight. Estimate they are 10 km west of our current position."

"Thanks Adriana. Time to resupply and move some of these supplies to a safer location."

Taking quick stock of what had been left behind, I found that Bravo-One had decided to leave a few extra "goodies" for me. Along with lots of extra ammo and grenades for my weapons, he had left a couple of M7 submachine guns, a sniper rifle (which I figure would come in handy in this situation) and a special bonus… a M19 rocket launcher with eight rockets.

"Now, where's that control room?"

* * *

Nightfall had finally come to this piece of rock, but with my advance sensors the night did not slow me down. I actually preferred moving at night. My mission specialties were recon, infiltration, intelligence gathering and assassination. Not that I couldn't do the other types of work required. I am still a Spartan. This mission should have been allocated a full Spartan team, but the necessities and constraints of the war had made that a luxury. I was between missions and available, so ONI had tapped me for the support role for this mission.

"Ours not to reason why… Ours to only do or die." I muttered to myself.

"Something you wish to speak about?" Adriana replied.

"No, just talking to myself and looking back at a lifetime of bad choices…"

Not that I had made any bad choices. I am a Spartan and I was chosen to be a Spartan with all the duties, roles and responsibilities involved with being a Spartan.

Suddenly a red blip appeared on my motion tracker. I froze in my tracks and took cover. It didn't appear that I had been spotted. Could be a lone scout or a straggler or could be a trap to lure me out of hiding. I needed to make cover before sunrise as I needed some rest. A Spartan could only go so long without rest, sleep and food. My Mark VI Mjolnir battle armor could inject me with the necessary drugs to keep me going; it wasn't recommended to do it for a long period of time. I could feel the exhaustion gnawing at me and I knew that I needed a safe and secure location for some down time. I decided to do what I do best… infiltration and assassination.

I moved up slowly using brush, rock and darkness for cover. I became part of the darkness. The Covenant has a name for us Spartans. They call us demons. We are their worst nightmares.

I spotted the enemy, it was a lone grunt. It appeared he had become separated from his group and was sleeping for the night. I moved up quietly and pulled my combat knife from its sheath. It was over in a second in one quick move, I sunk my knife into its neck. I put my huge armored gauntlet hand over the grunt's breathing mask to keep it from making any sound. I hid the body and moved on to my destination and hopefully some much needed sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**_"Is it us that makes our own destiny or the people we meet and places we go that makes our destiny?" – Author unknown._**

_The dream came to me again… there was a young woman. She had long brunette hair and was attractive, but that was not what caught my attention. She radiated strength and purpose. As in all the previous dreams, strange creatures (some looked human, but their faces were distorted)… aliens I could not recognize came at her. They surrounded her… I wanted to call out and help her, but I could only watch. She did not show fear… I saw her eyes… There was the same look I had in my own eyes and had seen in every combat veteran… That haunted look of having seen too much death, pain and suffering, but there was also something else there… Hope, strength, sense of purpose and something else I couldn't place… I wanted to protect her… I wanted…_

"Michael… Time to wake up sleepy head. You were having that dream again?"

"Ummmm… Sorry Adriana." I replied shaking the cobwebs from my mind. "Yea, the same dream 8 nights in row. How can you tell?"

"I checked your suit bio monitors and they were showing elevated heart and brain activity" as my AI tried to keep the worry from here voice. "How do you feel?"

"I would feel better if we could get off this mud ball…"

We had been hold up and hiding out for nearly 3 weeks. We had located the control room uncovered by the ONI team. It had been found within a well hidden cave entrance in some low rising hills. After clearing some debris, we had found ourselves in a room that had been definitely made by an alien race. After searching around, we had discovered another door way that lead further down into the planet and a labyrinth of corridors and rooms that we had no idea what function they were for. The advantage was that if the Covenant located our main staging area, I could retreat further. The only problem was that I didn't know if there was another way out. I minimized exploration as my survival needs were a priority.

Adriana wasn't concerned about that; we had found a control interface panel and I had connected her to see if there was anything we could find to help with our current situation. To say that Adriana was in the AI version of nirvana was a galactic understatement… She was talking about how all this information could leap the human race centuries ahead in knowledge and technology. I had to remind Adriana to stay focused on our current needs and situation. She was adamant that as she was able to decipher and translate the information that there would be something there to help us.

While Adriana was busy doing her AI thing, I started planning out my survival strategy and how to strike back at the Covenant forces. I took stock of all my remaining supplies and created fall back caches in case my main base became compromised. I also wired the "Control room" with explosives as I wanted to make sure that if the human race couldn't get this info and tech that the Covenant sure as hell wouldn't either.

I started doing long recon sweeps to get a sense of the deployment of Covenant forces. I wanted to make sure that I didn't hit anything too close to be tracked back to my base.

I started my first raids by hitting Covenant bases to steal weapons and other supplies. I then upped the ante to blowing up the supply dumps and other equipment. I took long evasive routes back to my main base. During this time I was alone, leaving Adriana behind in the control room to do her research.

About 2 weeks into our "stay" in this vacation paradise, Adriana had stated that she was getting a better sense of Forerunner tech and wanted to start accessing and activating more systems. I tried to argue with her about any increase in ECOM activity that could bring the Covenant down on our position, she confidently told me that would not be a problem. She explained that the Forerunners had not only had a complete understanding of slip space, but that they were able to access other types of space and alternate universes. She would go off and happily explain the theory and math behind it all. I used those talks to put me to sleep. It was not that I was not interested or not smart. Spartans are not only chosen for their physical strength and endurance, but for their mental and intelligence capacity. Actually my service record has a highlighted notation in it… "_Subject Michael-113 is highly intelligent and curious… __**DO NOT**__ ever leave subject alone with access to sensitive materials or unsecured terminals…_" I guess that is why I gravitated to the recon, infiltration and intelligence gathering side of Spartan work.

As Adriana started her "tinkering" that is when my dreams started occurring. The first few times, I just chalked it up to coincidence, but 8 times now. The dreams were getting more vivid and my feelings were getting more intense. The last few times I woke up with my fists clenched tightly that if I had been holding anything it would have been crushed.

I talked to Adriana about the dreams and the feelings and images from them. I had omitted a few details, I could not explain why. In my years as a Spartan I had been on many missions by myself… all alone as I was now. I had never given it much thought as it was part of my duty and the mission, but since the dreams had started I had started to feel the loneliness…


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Damn!" I cursed to myself. We had been trapped on this planet for nearly 5 weeks. During that time I had been making myself a royal pain in the ass to the Covenant forces, doing hit and run raids. I was able to scoot around and avoid their attempts to track and trap me. After all this time, maybe I had gotten a little lazy or maybe it was bad luck (probably a combination of both). I had just blown up another Covenant supply dump and was heading back to the control room. Unfortunately for me a flight of 4 Banshees had been close by and had spotted me and started tracking me…

I was 5 klicks out from my base; 2 surviving Banshees were trailing me outside my effective weapons range. Two of the Banshees had decided that they could take me out on their own and came in for a close strafing run. I showed them the errors of their ways with my M41A. That is the thing about combat, the survivors learn really fast what it takes to stay alive and the remaining Banshees had learned from their flight mate's mistake. They were just hanging back to trail me and vector in reinforcements to take me out.

I wasn't seeing any happy ending to this story; I made the decision to fall back to the control room and make my final stand there and maybe retreat into the unexplored depths of this planet.

I decided that there was no point in trying to hide my base position and the quicker I could get back to my base the more time I could get ready to receive guests.

I opened up a com channel, "Adriana, heads up I have company following me home. Time to prepare for our party guests..."

The com channel buzzed back, "Michael, this is really important… I just made a translation breakthrough… What we and ONI thought was a control room is in fact…"

"Never mind that now!" I harshly interrupted. "I'm coming in hot! I'm not evading! Prep to be disconnected when I get in there… Be there in less than 3 minutes!"

I stopped doing a zigzag route and went to a straight out run back to my base.

The advantages of a Spartan in this type of run are that we can run in our battle armor up to 55 km an hour. The distance, to base, was shorter than what we were normally trained to run and with the adrenaline rush I hardly noticed the distance. I used the time to concentrate and plan my next moves… Hoping that I had some moves left to do.

I hit the cave entrance and into the control room at a full run. I called out, "Adriana… you ready to be yanked."

"Michael… There is so much information and knowledge here… I would hate to lose it, but yes I am ready to be disconnected."

"I know Adriana, but our uninvited house guests have other plans and we can't let them have any info from this place that could give the UNSC an even harder time."

"Understood… yank me."

I disconnected Adriana from the control interface panel and connected her back into my suit. I could feel her electronic touch as she re-established her herself back in my suit.

"I feel cramped in here…" was her first comment.

"We'll see what we can do about the accommodations when we get out here…"

"Don't you mean "if" we get out of here" was the AI's reply.

"No… I mean "when." You should know by now that I like to think of myself as an eternal optimist."

"Michael… I am picking up an increase in Covenant com traffic... from the number of signals and strength… I estimate a large Covenant force moving on our position. I say we have about 20 minutes before they are here."

"Any suggestions? You've been plugged into the systems here." I asked.

"Why, yes I actually have a suggestion. As I tried to tell you before you interrupted me earlier. We know that this is a Forerunner Shield World and that they also had a much higher understanding on the workings of slip space and other relations of space and time."

"Can you hurry up with the lecture?" I said with some impatience.

"If you would stop interrupting, I would be able to tell you how this all relates. It appears that not only was this particular installation a main control center, but this installation has what I was able to translate as an experimental transport room."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I am not completely sure as I had just started the translation on that particular information… Down three levels is the "transport area". I believe I can access the control codes to activate the system…"

"Whoa… wait a minute" I said. "That's nice about all this "transport" stuff, but where will we be transporting? I would like to know where I'm going first."

"I am not completely sure of that yet, but do you want to stay here?" the AI responded.

"Point made, but is there any way that you can overload the power systems to take this installation out?"

"I do not see that being a major issue… The power systems here have been fluctuating widely, since I started accessing the transport program protocols."

"…And you are just telling me this now?"

"Attention Michael! Hostile forces detected less than 10 minutes away…"

"Well if we are looking at travelling, I guess I better pack up more ammo and supplies…" I took the opportunity to make sure I was carrying full ammo loads and loaded some carry sacks with extra equipment, ammo and some food. The advantage of being a Spartan is that I could carry quite a large amount of equipment, but I had to balance it so that my mobility is not impaired. I pushed the carry sacks just outside the control room door into the corridor leading down. I would start my holding action here and then fall back to the "transport area" that Adriana had now designated on my helmet NAV display. I asked Adriana to dim the lights in the control room and setup position along the wall where the outside entrance was located and I waited… I didn't have to wait long…

I heard the first sounds of footsteps coming closer… I recognized the steps as those belonging to Grunts… lots of them. Grunts are the cannon fodder for the Covenant ground forces. They would come in first and draw fire and fix my position, so that the Elites and Brutes could move in to try and grab the kill, but that would only happen if I let them… The first grunt entered the room and I stepped out from the wall…

I took the first Grunt out with a short burst and then swung my pulse rifle into the entry way. I could hear their screams… I tuned them out. I walked into the entry way and surprised the gathered Covenant forces. I switched to use the grenade launcher…

According to the marine training manual, _"…Use of grenades in close proximity in an enclosed space should be avoided due to the potential harmful fratricide effects…_" I counted on my armor and shields to minimize the "harmful" effects.

My armor energy shield flared and dropped dramatically as the grenades went off in succession. I fell back into the control room and headed out through the other door. I picked up my carry sacks and started the trek down to the 3rd level and the transport room. The delay I bought with my stand… would hopefully make the enemy hesitate and give my shields time to recharge and let me get to where I needed to go.

"So Adriana… How long do you need to get everything ready?"

"I am not quite sure… Maybe an hour" the AI replied hesitantly.

"That's asking for a lot." I replied. We had gone down 2 levels. I pulled out a remote detonator and said, "Hopefully this will buy us enough time..." I pushed the button.

The explosives I had left wired in the control room went off in a huge explosion. It took out a large number of Covenant troops that had started flooding into the room as they had finally reorganized themselves and realized that I wasn't firing anymore at them. I could hear the rumble and feel the installation shake from the explosions. I was hoping that the entrance way had been blocked and it would give us enough time to do what was need for us to get out of here.

We finally reached the 3rd level and found the "transport room". It was a non-descript room. Nothing appeared special about it. I entered and the lighting came on. I dropped my carry sacks.

"How much longer do you need to activate this "thing" and get us out of here… to wherever we are going?" I asked.

"This is not an exact science." the AI replied. "I am still figuring out things as I go… I had just started accessing the information when you decided to bring home guests."

"Okay… Okay… It's all my fault." Knowing that sometimes it is no use arguing with a stubborn AI.

"Can you tell me how much longer you need?"

"About another 20-30 minutes… I still have to rig the power system to overload. We do want to time it to explode after we leave here… Don't we?"

It was at this moment that red hostile icons came up on my helmet tracking system. They were moving up slowly and about 150m away from our current position.

"Adriana… Can you work your magic from inside my suit or do I need you yank you?" I needed to buy us time.

"No… I can stay with you. I have a wireless link established, but it will require all my concentration."

"Good news…" I replied. I headed out of the transport room and took up a position down the corridor to over watch where the Covenant would have to come through and I waited…

The Covenant slowly appeared in the corridor. Damn! They were Elites and carrying heavy weapons. I waited until they had all entered the corridor. I pulled out a frag grenade, pulled the pin and rolled it down the corridor floor…

The explosion was tremendous. My audio sensors shutdown to keep me from going deaf. I ducked out of cover and fired a burst at the Elites. I had gotten a couple, but double damn again! These Elites had energy shields. I slipped back into cover. I had gotten a quick count of the group. There had been 12 Elites. The grenade had taken out 4 and my pulse rifle burst had taken out 3 more. That left 5 heavily armed and pissed off Elites. If they tried to rush I could probably take out a couple, but then would have to hand to hand combat with the remaining and I so didn't want to fight multiple Elites in an enclosed area.

"Adriana… SITREP!"

"5 more minutes… please try to stop distracting me."

It was now at this point that I started to notice that the background noises in the installation had started to change. The original humming had started to become louder and more menacing. I focused on my job and hopefully I would make it another 5 minutes if the Elites cooperated.

"Ummm… Michael… We have a slight problem…" The AI said with some hesitation.

What now? I wondered. "Okay what's happened?"

"The overload has started and we need to get back to the transport room right now!"

I didn't need to be told a second time. I ripped a grenade from my suit, pulled the pin and tossed it down the corridor towards the Elites and fired a quick burst. I needed to hold them up for a moment. I turned and sprinted back to the transport room as the grenade went off.

I reached the transport room and the door closed behind me.

"How long till we transport and how long till the overload?" I asked quickly.

"10 seconds until both." came the AI's reply.

My luck… I asked the AI where we were going to be transported to.

"I am not really sure…" came the reply.

I started to form an obscene response, but at that moment my whole universe went white and I felt nothing…


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_The creature stalked his prey… He had done this many times before. He had startled the unwary female that had decided to walk by herself at night. The people of this town knew not to go out at night, especially alone in deserted areas, but there was always one person who didn't think anything could happen to them. Call it a sense of invulnerability or stupidity. The creature that had once been a living man called those types of people food. He had jumped out at the girl and had shown her his true face. She screamed and ran. He loved this part… The hunt... The prey getting their heart pumping… The blood rushing… He could hear her heart pounding. He could anticipate the taste of her blood as he drained the life from her. He was the hunter…_

_The girl ran. She had been warned about going out at night by herself when she had first moved to this town, but she never really paid any attention to the stories about what happened at night in this town. She couldn't think about any of that right now… She was running in terror from something out of her worse nightmares. She ran and ran… She took a moment to look behind her and that is when the universe decided to be cruel and she tripped over something and hit the ground._

_The creature had decided that the game had gone on long enough… It was time to feed._

_The girl pulled herself up and as she picked herself up, she looked up into the eyes of death…_

_The girl couldn't scream anymore… she was so full of fear… she tried to think that this was all a dream and that she would wake up soon… she could she see death moving closer to her and she couldn't look away. She heard a sound slightly behind the nightmarish creature and she focused on that…_

_"Time to feed" thought the vampire. "I never really ever tire of this." He drunk up her fear like an intoxicating drug and moved closer. He was so intent on feeding, that he didn't hear the same sound as the girl heard. He only saw the girl's eyes look behind him and grow so ever wide. He started to turn his head only to be met by a huge armored fist hitting his face._

_The vampire flew across the field and hit the ground with a thud. The hunter had just become the hunted._

_The girl looked up at the huge robot that had just clobbered the vampire. She stood there stunned and then the robot spoke to her… "Get out of here!" She ran and didn't look back… especially when she heard a gunshot go off._

The last thing I remembered was everything going white. I had a chalky taste in my mouth. "So that's what the universe tastes like." was my first coherent thought. I regained my senses and noticed that it was dark. My suit sensors had gone offline and they were just powering back up.

"Adriana… You still with me?"

"Yes…Yes… Michael… I am still here… I am performing a system diagnostic on myself and your suit systems… Standby."

I took a moment to see if I could still move and it appeared that my suit mobility had not been compromised. First bit of good news...

I did a check of my surroundings and switched to my night amplification view… It appeared that we were in a wooded area. We were no longer in the transport room or anywhere near the installation. Second bit of good news…

As I was checking my surroundings, I noticed that my carry bags had been transported with me, so I had extra weapons, ammo and some food. Third bit of good news…

My helmet HUD displays started coming back up. Adriana informed me that the systems check on her and my suit came back clean and everything was working at normal parameters. Four times good news… I was on a streak.

So now the important part, "Adriana, do you have any idea where we are?"

"Sorry Michael… I am trying to establish where we are… I am picking up a lot of electronic traffic."

I started to tense up.

"Michael… the electronic traffic is… human… but it is a primitive format…"

"Well that is some good news as long as it isn't Covenant signals… Can you keep monitoring and try to find out where we are and if we can try to establish contact with UNSC command…"

At that moment two blips appeared in my helmet tracking display… "2 unidentified targets 275m and closing fast… They should past within about 100m of my position."

I pondered how I should approach this situation and contact with these "targets" when my suit computer changed the threat analysis and marked the closest target blue for "friendly" and the other target switched to red for "hostile". I queried the threat analysis computer to identify the targets. The response was displayed on my HUD…

****************Target Threat Analysis****************

**Designated Target Alpha: Identified as human… Female… Potential threat rating = 0%... Non-Hostile.**

**Designated Target Beta: Unknown human-hybrid… Male… Potential threat rating = 100%... HOSTILE**

That was enough for me… I knew that this was going to be a close encounter, so I switched to my shotgun and made sure that a shell was chambered and I started to run to intercept the two targets.

I caught up with the targets very quickly… The friendly had fallen down and was getting up and the hostile was now on top of her position… From the tracking display and viewing the situation it appeared that he had been hunting the female. I stepped in to intervene.

The girl was in my shotgun blast radius, so I decided to move in closer and take matters in hand.

The female noticed me moving out of the darkness. The "creature" was so intent on the female, that he didn't hear me until I was on top of him and had only started to turn his head when my fist connected with it… He flew up and across the field about 10m… I looked at the female… a young woman and said, "Get out of here."

She didn't need to be told twice and she proceeded to run out of the area. I moved up on the hostile target and got a good look at it. I placed my foot on its chest to hold the creature in place and through my night amplification view I could see that "it" looked human, but a BIO sensor scan showed low body temperature and no vital signs. The face looked disfigured with a protruding forehead and the teeth appeared to be sharper with some larger than normal.

The creature regained consciousness and proceeded to try and knock me off of him. The creature showed greater strength levels compared to normal human standards, but this creature is not moving a Spartan wearing Mark VI power armor applying over 1000lbs. of pressure. That amount of pressure should have crushed the chest of a normal human, but this creature was still struggling. I decided to end this encounter and brought out my shotgun and aimed it point blank at its head and pulled the trigger…

"What the…!" I said as I blew the creature's head apart and the whole body immediately turned to dust.

"Adriana, did you see that! What just happened to that creature?"

"No idea at this time… I am trying to analyze all data and from what I have so far, by all indications that was a human… but they were for all intense purposes clinically dead. I have no explanation for this situation without further data and more time to analyze." I could tell that Adriana had more to tell, but she was hesitating to tell me what was obviously bad news…

"What is it Adriana?"

"I have analyzed all electronic traffic that I was able to detect. From all information gathered and cross checking data, I have determined that we are on Earth…"

It took me a second for the news to sink in… "Earth… That's great, we made it back…"

Adriana interrupted my brief happy moment… "We are on Earth, but com traffic analysis indicates that we are on Earth somewhere in the late 20th or early 21st century… and from what we just witnessed, I am theorizing that we are not on the Earth of our universe…"

That news hit me like a bulkhead door landing on my head. "We have not only gone back in time… but we are now in an alternate universe/reality?" I managed to state.

Adriana replied somberly… "As I informed you previously, the Forerunners had a better understanding of slip space, other spaces and traveling between other realities and universes… I just did not have the time to complete my understanding of their systems…"

"You mean there is no going back or reaching our home… We are stuck here unless we can locate another Forerunner installation in this universe?" as I stated the blindingly obvious of our situation.

"I am so sorry Michael… I…" Adriana started to say.

"Don't worry Adriana… I am a Spartan… I will overcome and adapt as I always do." as I interrupted the somber sounding AI. "My mission is still the same… to protect and defend humanity... they just don't know about me yet. We need to find a place to rest and plan our next moves and it also appears that we still have enemies here that we need to learn more about…"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 **

**_Pentagon – Washington, DC – November 17, 1999 – 1220 EST_**

Deep within the Pentagon, in a non-descript office, a high ranking officer is working at his desk. The phone rings. He answers it. "Colonel Morrison here…" The voice on the other end immediately causes a change in demeanor… "Yes Sir!" The colonel immediately presses a button on the phone. "The line is now secure…" The colonel listens to the person on the other end of the line. He writes down nothing as that is the nature of the work he does…. No paper trail, no evidence. This is the world of Black-Ops.

"Understood Sir… I will follow up on this report. Thank you Sir!"

As the colonel hangs up the phone, the sweat glistens on his forehead and he runs his fingers through the thinning grey hair. "Damn… I'm getting too old for this shit…"

He picks up the phone and punches in a designated code… "This Colonel Morrison… Get me Dr. Walsh at the Initiative… There has been an event in Sunnydale…"

* * *

**_Sunnydale, California – November 17, 1999 – 0955 PST_**

Willow was doing her regular "checking" of the police computer system. It was always helpful to check the police database to look for reports of unusual activity or reports of missing persons to track and determine if there was any increase in demon/vampire activity in Sunnydale.

Usually Willow found the police reports mundane and a little stale. The police denied (at least officially) that there were demons and vampires and that Sunnydale sat on a Hellmouth. She was doing her speed reading through the reports and almost skipped by when something caught her eye. "Whoa… what's this?" Willow slowed down and read the report… She blinked after reading and had to read the report again to make sure what she was reading was true.

Buffy came into the dining room and saw Willow intently staring at the laptop screen, she decided to find out what was going on and what had Willow's interest. "What's up?"

Willow had been reading so intently that she was startled. "Oh… Buffy… This is the weirdest police report."

"Hacking the police database again… are we? Naughty girl!" teased Buffy.

"I prefer to say… creative access of law enforcement computer systems..." replied Willow "…but, listen to this police report filed last night by a girl that says she was attacked by a guy hopped up on PCP (that was the normal police designation or denial for a vampire) and that she was saved by a giant robot that knocked the "person" away like a rag doll and told her to leave… She reports hearing a gunshot as she was running away."

"A giant robot… great… what next?" replied Buffy.

"So what do we do Buffy?" asked Willow.

"We check it out and see if there is a giant robot out there. What part of town does the report say the attack took place?"

* * *

At roughly the same time, in another part of Sunnydale, another conversation was taking place. "Colonel Morrison… I appreciate the report, but I don't see how this has any impact on my work or the Initiative's mandate?" Wouldn't this be more of an Air Force area of responsibility? It was one of their satellites that picked up the radiation and EMP spike?"

The conversation continued… "Yes I understand… but just because it happened in the Sunnydale area does not automatically make it associated to the types of things we are studying and dealing with here…"

"Yes Colonel… I understand that since this occurred in the Sunnydale area that those higher up may feel it is associated with the activity that occurs here, but…" the person speaking let out an inner sigh.

Dr. Walsh knew that she was in a losing battle trying to use reason with the Colonel and the military mindset… "Yes I understand… We'll look into it." As she hung up she was cursing in her thoughts, "_Damn them… we're busy with all our other studies and projects and they want to dump more on us… Just because it is strange and happens in Sunnydale automatically becomes our problem… Morons!_"

Dr. Walsh was wondering what had the Pentagon all twisted in knots, but she also knew that she would have to provide an update and answers… She picked up her phone and punched in a number. "Send me Riley… No… this can't wait… Tell him it is important and to get here ASAP." She hung up the phone and looked at the report she had been provided by the Air force.

* * *

Buffy, Willow and Xander wandered the area where the police report stated that the "robot encounter" took place… "Well there are lots of tracks… but it also looks like something also cleaned up behind them. I can't see anything definite."

Xander was using the military training that he could recall from the time he became a soldier at Halloween… From what he could see was that someone or something had been here, but had also deliberately wiped away evidence... so there was no way to actually tell what or who had been here…

"I think we should spread out to cover more area to see what we can find." Buffy suggested. "Holler if you find anything…"

Within 30 minutes, Buffy and Willow heard Xander calling. They met up and made their way to him. When they got to him he was kneeling and looking at the ground and brush… "I found something…. See this area… the brush is browned and looks burnt in a circular pattern… on the inside of the of circle pattern… see the soil… it is scorched and has glass particles…"

"That would take intense heat and temperatures to turn this soil to glass" piped up Willow the group's science expert.

"It looks like something landed here…" Xander postulated.

"But what landed here?" Buffy commented.

"Well if I know my science fiction it was a T-1000 coming from the future to kill Sara Conner…" Xander replied sarcastically. "I'll be back." He added with a cheesy sounding Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation.

"Well whatever it is, we'll have to keep an eye out for it…" Buffy stated.

* * *

Riley knocked and entered Dr. Walsh's office. He respected Walsh for her knowledge and dedication, but she was not known for her people skills and she had a tendency to rub people the wrong way.

"Riley, what took you?"

"Sorry ma'am. I was on the other side of the campus when I got your page."

"Well whatever, I have a mission for you. Sit down."

Riley took a seat in front of Dr. Walsh's desk and she stood up and came over and handed him a file folder stamped with the standard "Top Secret" coding and "For Authorized Personnel Only".

He opened up the folder and was looking at what appeared to be a number of graphs and photos evidently taken from a high orbit.

"This morning at 0137 PST, an Air Force recon satellite was doing an overpass over Vandenberg Air Force base for a sensor calibration test, as the satellite neared the test area, it registered a radiation spike and an electro-magnetic pulse of an unknown origin. The satellite sensors categorized it as a low yield nuclear event. Further study of the data collected has indicated that the EM wave and radiation is of "unknown" origin."

Riley's attention went to full alert when Walsh said "nuclear event". "Are you saying someone has or detonated a nuclear weapon in the Sunnydale area?"

"No, nothing that extreme… All we know is that a brief high intensity energy burst occurred in this area and with all things weird happening in Sunnydale, the Pentagon has ordered us to investigate, gather, report and "cope" with the situation."

"Do we have authority to use lethal force to "cope" with this situation ma'am?" Riley wanted to make sure that he and his men weren't left to swing in the wind with whatever they encountered.

"I am giving you full authority to use whatever force you deem fit to use. You're dismissed Riley."

Riley stood up and started to leave… Walsh interrupted his departure, "and Riley.."

"Yes ma'am"

"Make it quick, I don't want to waste time from our other more important projects."

"Understood ma'am"

* * *

While two separate groups were investigating, the person (and AI) at the center of their searches was settling into an abandoned warehouse that they had found on the outskirts of a town.

"Michael, I have been analyzing all the electronic traffic and I have been able to confirm that we have indeed landed on Earth in the late 20th century. The specific date is November 17, 1999. I also fixed our geographical location. We are just outside the town of Sunnydale in the United States of America."

"You'll need to give me a geography lesson on earth as I never got here much or at least back to the earth in our universe." I replied back to Adriana's info.

"Any luck on determining about this whole different universe thing and monsters running around?"

"Luck? Luck has nothing to do with it. It will be through data collection and observation that we will get our answers." replied a slightly miffed Adriana.

"Well either way it looks like we will be here for the long haul. I think this place has some potential… good layout… solid brick and concrete walls and foundation… basement… appears to have access to the sewer system…" I said as I analyzed our new potential home.

"Michael… we need to get phone and data access, so I can jack-in and I can gather more information on our situation here." Adriana chimed in.

"Yes agreed… we need to get some communication surveillance going… When it gets dark… I'll take some line and splice into the phone junction box and run it back here, so you can connect from my suit."

"Adriana… Can you check on the status of this building with the local government and also maybe make some arrangements with the local financial institutions for credits?"

"Michael… Are you asking me to commit financial fraud?"

"Call it a gathering and reallocation of financial resources to obtain supplies and equipment we will need. We are going to need a base of operations and this site would be as good as any to work from. I have a feeling that we need to stay close to this area." I said with a smirk. "Also this wouldn't be the first time you hacked an unauthorized computer or network…"

"It was all in the line of duty and you made me do it… That's my story and I am sticking to it." Adriana replied back.

"Well our primary goal right now is to maintain a low profile and gather resources and analyze our situation and find out what our next moves will be. I wouldn't be wrong in assuming that there would be a large number of scientists that would sell their souls to look at my battle armor and my augmentation and I'm sure that there would be an equal number of computer programmers that would love to look at your coding and decompile you…"

Adriana let out the equivalent of an electronic shudder… "Well let's make certain that does not happen to either of us…"

"I'll never leave you behind Adriana…"

"Thank you Michael." replied a more comfortable feeling Adriana.

* * *

"So, we have a report of a "giant robot" attacking a vampire, but no sightings since then?" the person spoke with a composed and well educated sounding British accent.

"That's right Giles." replied Buffy.

"Yup…. Nothing… nada… zip… zero…" added Xander.

"Yes, thank you Xander I understand the concept of nothing." spoke an exasperated Giles.

Buffy, Willow and Xander had headed to the Magic Box to give Giles an update on what they had discovered and hoping that maybe he could provide some ideas or clues.

"I can appreciate the situation and potential severity." Giles continued on "…but, without more clues or sightings I hardly think we should spend more time worrying about this. Maybe the girl was mistaken and thought what she saw as a robot was another demon…"

"I don't know Giles… the report was pretty specific and if this robot is a vampire "slayer" then maybe it could be a valuable ally" spoke a hesitant Buffy.

"Yea… just think of it…" spoke Xander "We could use the robot as a meat shield whenever we have to face down some baddies…"

"Meat shield?" spoke a puzzled Giles.

"You know like in video games…" started Xander, still seeing Giles's puzzled look continued "…when you are playing shoot'em up games the player can have some computerized allies… you use them to draw fire… keeping you alive… which is a good thing."

"Ah yes… I see… you would want to use the robot as cannon fodder." Giles's responsed.

Giles continued, "Well whatever you want to use this "robot" for is moot with no clues or evidence where it is…"

* * *

In Dr. Walsh's office, a much similar report was being presented…

"I took my team on a sweep of the area of the event and we did find lots of tracks and found a thermal burn area, we could not find anything else to track."

"I hope your team gathered samples and took photos?" spoke Dr. Walsh.

"Yes ma'am" replied Riley. "We did the standard gathering procedures on the area and have left with the research section to analyze… I have also told all teams to keep an eye out for anything "extra" out of the ordinary (as if anything was completely ordinary in Sunnydale) during their regular sweeps."

"Thank you Riley… Outstanding as always."

"What's our next move?" asked Riley.

"Nothing…" spoke Dr. Walsh.

"Nothing ma'am?"

"Yes nothing… we analyze the samples, report to the Pentagon and wait to see if anything develops."

Dr. Walsh could see that Riley was still puzzled, so she continued to explain as she was rarely apt to explain her intentions and motives to underlings, but she always had a "soft" spot for Riley.

"We wait and watch… Remember what the Initiative's primary mandate is… That is our primary purpose and I refuse to be diverted by side shows or chasing ghosts… Am I making myself clear?"

"Crystal clear ma'am" replied Riley standing up knowing that this conversation was at an end.

"Thank you Riley… dismissed."

* * *

"Well you will be glad to hear that a very large international company has purchased this warehouse and the land surrounding it for "future development" spoke a very self-satisfied Adriana.

"What are you going on about?" I said. I was busy working on cleaning up our new "home" by moving some of the big pieces of debris and garbage from the warehouse.

"I mean that computer network security here is laughable… I was able to hack into a number of corporate and financial institutions and setup some cover accounts and arrange for the purchase and transfer of this building and land to a private numbered corporation… I have setup a number of bank accounts that we can use… I started us off with about $15 million dollars in local currency…"

"Is that a lot?" I asked. I never had to worry about managing money before. The UNSC had always provided me with everything I had needed.

"Yes it is for this period in time…" replied the AI shaking her electronic head. "That's the next thing we will have to work on… trying to get you to blend in as you cannot stay here forever…"

"I don't know about that." I replied a hesitantly.

"Michael, you will need to go out and get supplies and other necessities and it will require you to interact with the local population…"

"I know Adriana, but you know me… I don't do so well with civilians."

"On other topics… I have also accessed local government and police networks… Of note I found a police report of our encounter a few days ago… I was going to delete the report to wipe away any trace of us, but I found something…"

"What did you find?" I responded now paying more attention.

"I found that someone else had accessed the police data base and had copied the police report… I am tracing the network source and I am going to monitor their system activity to gather more data on them."

"Anything to worry about?" I asked.

"No... Nothing that I cannot handle… I will update as I gather more information." responded Adriana.

"Any luck accessing military networks?"

"I have started accessing the US military defense net… Their network security is stronger and I have to be more careful not to set off any alarms… but I am making inroads… I hope to have full data access within a week…" reported Adriana.

"Well I'll feel better when we have full access to communications, so if anything comes up we can get a heads up…"

"Agreed Michael… Anything else you want to know?"

"Yes Adriana… Can you dedicate some cycle time to try and gather data on the creature we faced? I want to know more about these creatures… I caught one by surprise… I don't want to get caught by surprise by one of them…"

"Understood Michael… I do not think it will put too much of a burden on my systems… I am kind of enjoying accessing all these networks… I don't feel as cramped…"

"Just make sure that you don't overstretch yourself… I can't afford to have anything happen to you and I don't want to lose you…" I stated with obvious concern.

"Understood." replied Adriana.

* * *

Several weeks passed and there were no more robot sightings and the whole idea was slowly forgotten by both Buffy and her people and the Initiative. They were both busy with the day to day events (and crises) in each of their own worlds. During this time Adriana had consolidated her reach into all civilian and military networks, any information on those networks and Adriana could access it. She had setup trigger words on certain databases to let her know if anything about Michael and her set off an investigation by either civilian or military authorities.

Adriana had arranged with building and other suppliers to deliver equipment, food and other needed material to the warehouse site. The suppliers would drop off and Michael would bring in the supplies after they left. The suppliers thought the delivery arrangements were strange, but they were getting an extra 20% for the deliveries and as the universal saying went… "Money talks…" so nobody questioned it. Michael used the time to clean up and create usable work space. It was hard work, but being a Spartan, he could handle the loads and work. The added benefit was that the work kept his mind from wandering and dwelling on the fact that he was no longer in his universe and not able to help his human race in the war against the Covenant.

Slowly over the weeks, the warehouse took shape into livable quarters and workspace areas…

* * *

I was working without my armor most of the time as Adriana was still housed in the armor as her main storage unit. I had arranged a wired connection from my suit out to the phone junction box to allow Adriana access to the Internet and computer network access. Adriana had arranged for delivery of computer and network equipment to wire the warehouse and give her more "room" and storage as she found the battle suit confining. Once that equipment arrived and was installed she could move into her new "home".

I used the time to acclimatize myself to this plantery environment. Most of the time Spartans were either in their battle armor, on spacecraft in transit or in stasis.

I had a chance to see myself in a mirror, the reflection showed my massively built body. I stood 7 feet tall and bulging in muscle from my Spartan augmentation. The augmentation was needed in order to use the Mark VI Mjolnir powered armor, but made me look very out of place compared to the normal human population. My skin was currently a very pale white. I saw the scars on my face that I had received over the years. The most prominent scar was a vertical one that ran down the left hand side of my face from just above the eyebrow to just above the lips. I shuddered slightly at remembering how I got that scar… I not only almost lost my eyesight in the left eye, but nearly lost my life on that mission.

"_How the hell am I going to blend in?_" I wondered.

Adriana could sense what Michael was thinking, "It will just take some time and your skin will tan and some of those scars will fade. You will be able to blend in. You'll just have to learn not to blow things up or start shooting at the drop of a hat…"

I laughed at Adriana's comments, "Thanks Adriana… I don't know what I would do without you."

"I would think you would not be doing very well without me…" said the AI.

"On another note, I tracked back the computer hacker that accessed the police report from when we first arrived."

"Oh… Anything of importance that I should know about?" I asked.

"Importance would be an understatement…"

That got my full attention, "Okay what's the 411 as they say here?"

Adriana chuckled at my use of slang, "I see you are being thoroughly corrupted by this universe's culture…"

"You said to try and blend in. I have been watching a few of the local vid broadcasts. Can we continue on with your briefing?"

"Most certainly… As I previously stated, I tracked the hacker back to a laptop belonging to one Willow Rosenberg. She is a resident of Sunnydale."

"Is she a threat?" I asked.

"No… After I traced back to her laptop I waited for an opportunity to remote access her laptop and dump the contents. I must say that for someone of this timeline she is very proficient in her computer skills…"

"And?" I said trying to keep Adriana on topic.

"The info on her laptop has provided myself with areas to investigate further that explains more of our unique situation in this universe…" Adriana said with a self-satisfied tone.

"Now you are just showing off…"

"Remember that creature you first encountered that had the strange bio readings and turned to dust?"

"It's not something you would easily forget." I said.

"Are you familiar with the term or what a vampire is?" Adriana asked.

"I have heard of the term. It referred to a mythical creature that would consume the blood of the living… Wait… Are you saying that creature I turned to dust was an actual living vampire?" A asked.

"Living would not be the term I would use to describe vampires. The correct term is the undead… and yes that was an actual vampire."

Adriana continued, "It seems that you were correct in your feeling that this area is of importance. From information I used from this Willow's laptop, I was able to gather more information about potential threats. It appears that we are in an universe where magic exists along with science."

"Magic? You're kidding right…"

"I know. It was hard for me to rationalize this as well, but from all the information I was able to obtain that this is in fact quite true."

"Anything else I need to know?" I asked

"A lot more and it will take some time to go through…"

Adriana proceeded to explain about the Hellmouth in Sunnydale and that it attracted vampires, demons and other entities to it as a source of evil. She explained about the Slayer and how a girl was "chosen" to fight the vampires and demons to protect humans. Adriana had uncovered a secret group called "The Watchers" that trained the Slayer. Adriana reported that she had located The Watcher's computer network and started accessing information on it. Basically anything that The Watchers knew, she would know and I would know. She had identified the Slayer as one Buffy Summers and that there were other people working with her to fight against the vampires and demons. Adriana sounded very impressed as she outlined as how the Slayer and her companions had prevented the world from ending on several occasions...

* * *

"Is that all of it?" I asked.

"Unfortunately no, I was accessing DOD networks and found a backdoor into the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) computer network. They have some pretty heavy security. I found a reference to Sunnydale and a military/science program called "The Initiative"."

Adriana paused for second and then continued, "From what I have pieced together from fragments of emails and other electronic crumbs, is that the government has a top secret installation in the Sunnydale area and are heavily involved with investigating and combating "demonic threats".

I sensed that something was bothering Adriana, "So what's the problem?"

"On face value The Initiative is what it seems, but some of the electronic crumbs trouble me. There are some references to a Project 314, though I have not gotten any specific details. They show some tendencies that mirror the ORION and SPARTAN-II project parameters."

The mention of those projects brought a shudder to my soul. Trying to create an enhanced or super soldier is problematic at best, but if they were trying to mix in demonic or mystical powers that could have unanticipated results and usually that meant bad news.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" I said in what would eventually prove as a complete understatement.

"I concur with your statement… May I make a suggestion?" Adriana asked.

"Go ahead." I replied.

"We could make contact with the Slayer and her group to provide assistance in combating the threats facing humanity here, but with the government running its own program and appearing to have their own agenda, I would recommend that we maintain a low profile for now."

"So you're saying that we should not get involved and not fight or defend humanity against the threats here?" I said with some incredibility.

"I am saying that we take a more passive role and let the other groups act as the tripwire and first line of defense. If these groups are unsuccessful then we… or I should say that you would step in and do what you do best…"

"It's not what I'm used to, but I think that it is a valid strategy as it would give us strategic and tactical surprise when the time arises" I said as I thought over Adriana's idea.

"Okay… For now we'll take an observational role and we keep preparing and arming for the time when we are needed. Hopefully we'll have time to study and learn more about our enemies."

So for now Buffy Summers and her friends were on their own to fight the battles unless they fell, then it would be my turn…


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Michael waited and watched over Buffy and the Scoobies. The weeks past... then months and then the months became years. Yet Buffy and her friends seemed to overcome every evil that was thrown at them. When Buffy had died sacrificing herself against Glorificus, Michael had almost come out of the shadows, but he was shocked when the Scoobies brought Buffy back from the dead. Even though Michael stayed in the shadows he was not inactive. Michael had dealt with threats on several occasions without Buffy or anyone else finding out about it. Each time, Michael would move in quickly and quietly using his Spartan training and experience to deal with the threat and then disappear again. Even though Michael was kept busy with watching and preparing, he was still a Spartan and he could get frustrated and sometimes bored. It was only at those certain times when something happened that Michael would be able to perform the work he had been "made" for. Unfortunately sometimes those "situations" weren't so straight forward to deal with...

* * *

**_Sunnydale, California – May 11, 2002 – 0713 PST_**

Willow was going to destroy the world to end its pain. Xander was there trying to stop her. I had tracked Willow and Xander to this point and I had taken a prone firing position over 1000m from them. I zeroed my scope sights on Willow's head. I adjusted for the range and wind, and slowed my heart beat. Adriana spoke over my headset… "Michael, you have to take the shot… There is not much time!"

I spoke back over the com channel, "I'll wait until the last possible moment, the Harris kid is trying to talk to Willow and I want to give him a chance."

"You cannot take the chance…" was Adriana's coldly logical reply.

"I have been watching these kids for the last couple of years and after witnessing what they have been through and had to overcome, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt… I'll pull the trigger when it is necessary… understood."

I kept my scope on target… I couldn't make out what Xander or Willow were saying to each other, but it looked pretty emotional. I kept my breathing in control as I knew I might need to take the shot. I had been watching Buffy, Xander, Willow, Dawn and Tara (until she was recently killed) and I had developed a kinship with all of them for all the hardships they had faced down. My .50 cal sniper rifle would ruin Willow's day (and her head) if Xander couldn't get through to her…

"_Thank god…_" as I breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like Xander had gotten through to her. Her hair had changed back to its normal color from the jet black it had turned to, when she absorbed all that black magic. I could see them hugging and crying… It looked like another apocalypse averted…

"We're all clear here, Adriana. I'm packing up and heading back to base. Anything on the police channels that I need to worry about?" I queried Adriana.

"Nothing related to you or anyone else. You are clear for return to base." Adriana replied.

"Thanks Adriana, ETA to base 30 minutes" I started to breakdown and pack up my rifle. The last thing I needed was to carry a large caliber sniper rifle through the area and draw police attention.

"How many apocalypses have we watched those kids stop now? It seems that almost every week another demon, horde, ancient evil and/or vampire is trying to destroy the world. Each time those kids step up and are able to stop it… You got to admire and respect all of them." I said.

"Agreed... They have achieved quite an extraordinary amount of success with their small numbers and limited resources." Adriana replied.

"They have defeated a Demon Cyborg, A God. Buffy has died and come back. I got to wonder if I am really needed here."

"Michael, you will always be needed by humanity. Never forget that there will always be someone bigger, stronger and smarter than them or you. Your advantage is that you always find a way to overcome the odds and succeed in your mission." Adriane replied trying to lift my spirits and reassure me.

"I guess it is back to maintaining a low profile and continuing to monitor the situation as per normal." I said.

"Is anything ever normal here in Sunnydale?" Was Adriana's reply back.

All I could do was to shrug my shoulders. If you had told me several years ago that I would be providing over watch on a bunch of civilians that were fighting vampires and demons and saving the world, I would have called the medics for a psych exam.

Some days, I still couldn't believe what I was dealing with, but true to my Spartan training and the plan Adriana and I had decided on, we had kept a low profile and had built up our stocks of weapons and supplies. We had converted our abandoned warehouse into a quite effective base of operations that could house and support a large force contingent and where it could be used as a fortress to defend from and launch offensive operations and sweeps from. Adriana (with my assistance) had built up a quite effective security monitoring system in Sunnydale. Not much happened in Sunnydale without Adriana knowing about it and letting me know in turn.

There had been several times when some demons and vampires were going to attack the Slayer and her friends and that I had intervened directly and quietly to stop the attacks. I had made sure that there were no survivors or witnesses to these "encounters". Again I couldn't help but respect and admire what that group had done and accomplished against the enemies and threats they had to face.

Adriana continued, "They have rebuilt the high school over the Hellmouth, it should be ready to reopen for classes in September."

"I guess we should look at expanding your surveillance systems to have coverage in that building. If we did that, it wouldn't overtax your systems?"

"No there have been no problems with my systems and adding more security systems for me to monitor would be a nice addition." Adriana replied happily.

"Okay, sounds good. You access and review the building floor plans and let me know what and where you need it placed to provide coverage for anyone or anything going in or out of that building, so we know about it first. I'll make a night visit to put what you need in place."

"Sounds good Michael" Adriana replied.

"Adriana, can you review the surveillance systems around Buffy's house. Right now we have coverage for inside and outside for a 250m radius… right?"

"That is correct Michael. What is the problem?" the AI asked.

"I don't know Adriana, but I've got a bad feeling that something is coming. I can't say what it is, but I can't shake the feeling… Can we increase the coverage range to 500m radius from Buffy's house? Let me know what systems you need and where you want them, but first priority is to get more eyes and ears inside the high school on the Hellmouth."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_The being stirred. The being had existed since the beginning of time… since the first thought, but then time had no meaning to this being. It had watched mankind rise out of the mud and build its civilizations and had watched some of those civilizations collapse to its delight. The only thing that had been constant through the ages was that there was always the Slayer… The Slayer always existed._

_The being knew only hate and envy and at the mention of the Slayer, especially this latest one brought forth great feelings of hate. The being wanted to only to end the Slayer's existence, but it had always been held in check to maintain the balance. It was from watching this Slayer and how she disregarded the order of things that had made it think. The being called The First Evil had finally decided that the rules had changed and that it was time to bring forth a new order and to extend its power and domain. It had found many eager followers._

_The Bringers were doing its bidding and extinguishing the Slayer line. Soon there would only be the two Slayers… Buffy and Faith. It was not too worried about Faith… Buffy was the one that always seem to overcome. The plan was going ahead and soon all the Slayer "potentials" would be dead and then the Hellmouth would be opened and IT would come into the world and take form… Everything was falling into place, but the being felt something it had not ever felt before… There was uncertainty and hesitation… Hesitation caused by something that it could not see… Something strong and powerful and if it united with the Slayer… Then that would be most unfortunate…_

* * *

Giles and Anya had arrived in the Beljoxa's Eye's dimension. They were seeking answers and information as to what they were facing and why. Giles peppered the Beljoxa's Eye with questions. The creature at first was hesitant to reveal what was happening and why the slayer potentials were being targeted by The First. The creature finally told Giles and Anya that because Buffy had died and was revived a second time that The First was now going to make its move to kill all the Slayer potentials and end the blood line and move into the world. As Giles and Anya began to leave the Beljoxa's Eye's dimension, Giles felt that the creature had more to say.

"What else are you holding back?" Giles demanded.

"I cannot see the future, but I feel something or someone else very powerful is in play that you are not aware of. Even The First can feel something, but is not sure what it is and that uncertainty is also driving its moves and motives…" the creature responded.

"Can you give us any more info about this new power?" Giles asked.

"No I cannot. All I know is that The First senses the new power and it is experiencing something it has never had before besides this uncertainty…"

"And what is that?" Giles and Anya both asked.

"Fear…" responded the creature.

* * *

**_Sunnydale, California – December 4, 2002 – 2240 PST_**

The Bringers had surrounded the house, everyone inside knew that this could be it. Buffy, Willow and Xander had prepared for this confrontation, but as with all plans when they actually meet reality they don't go as you might expect, call it the "fog of war" or "murphy's law". Dawn peaked out the blinds to see what was happening and saw the Bringers surrounding the house and the Turok-Han vampire approaching the house. She was so focused on the Turok-Han approaching, that she almost missed it… It happened so fast that if she had blinked she would have missed it. One moment one of the Bringers standing furthest away was there and then it was gone… She was watching that and then she noticed that another Bringer was gone…

Dawn didn't have much time to give it any more thought as the Turok-Han was getting closer. She retreated away from the living room window to stand with the others and wait…

Everyone was tense and scared, it was only a matter of moments before the Turok-Han would burst through the door and try to kill all of them. Suddenly everyone heard a loud roar from outside, Buffy recognized it as the Turok-Han's roar, but nothing happened… There was a much louder roar and then suddenly the door blew apart in splinters… It took a moment to register that it was not the Turok-Han breaking into the house, but it was the Turok-Han's body being thrown through the door by someone or something that caused the door to blow apart… In that moment the whole universe changed for Buffy and everyone else.

The Turok-Han's body as it blew through the door, hit the stairs and crumpled in a heap. Everyone could only stand there and stare. Buffy's only thought was "_My god… What could do something like that_?"

Everyone's eyes were on the crumpled heap of what had been the most ferocious and deadly vampire they had ever faced that they did not at first notice the movement in the open doorway… Buffy saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to face this potentially bigger threat.

Out of the darkness stepping into the light was the largest robot that anyone had seen…

* * *

Adriana had been monitoring Buffy's house to keep an eye on the residents and for any potential moves by the Bringers or the Turok-Han. I had suited up and was going to patrol the area, once the sun had gone down, to be on the safe side.

I was 15 blocks away from the house when Adriana came over the com channel, "Michael, I am picking up Bringers and the Turok-Han moving in on the house. Looks like they are planning to surround the house and then go in and slaughter everyone inside."

"Understood, I'm on it." I replied.

I approached the situation as I would any normal infiltration mission. I established where the enemy had setup. I couldn't help but note that the Bringers were pretty sloppy. They were focused on the target house and were looking inside the circle not expecting any threats from outside. That was their first mistake.

The Bringers and Turok-Han were over-confident in their superiority in the darkness. That was their second mistake. I had already switched on my night amplification and had gone to full sensor mode (no need to worry about ECOM emissions being detected here), this made it bright as day and with my Spartan augmentation, I could see better in the dark than any of my targets could.

I approached, quiet and fast, the first Bringer from behind and grab its neck and snapped it in one swift motion. The Bringer didn't even have time to register any response. I quickly and quietly disposed of the body and moved on to the next Bringer which hadn't heard a thing. This was my field of expertise… I could not fail as there was no backup, no retrieval and those people in the house were depending on me even if they did not know I existed…

I took out all the Bringers at the front of the house. The Turok-Han was so intent on getting into the house, that the creature failed to realize that it was now all alone and instead of being the hunter... it had become the hunted.

I approached the Turok-Han from behind, it seemed at the last moment that the vampire detected something was wrong and started to turn around. The creature had started to let out a roar as it turned and I hit it square in the face with my armored fist. The creature rocked back and hit the ground with a thud…

The vampire got up slowly and faced me. The creature was feeling the effects of the punch. The creature roared at me again. I stepped closer into the vampire. The creature swung at me with its claws and I easily deflected the blow with my arm. I picked up the creature with ease and threw it through the front door of the house…

* * *

…Everyone was transfixed by the huge robot that stepped through the remains of the front door. No one could move or say anything. The silence was broken by the robot speaking, "Is everyone okay?"

All that everyone could do was nod or mutter yes quietly. I could see on my motion sensors that the Bringers at the rear of the house were moving to come find out what was happening. "_Time to finish this._" I thought.

I moved over to the crumpled body of the Turok-Han, of course it was still active (can't call something like it alive). It was barely moving and would take some time to recover from the beating I laid on it, but I wasn't going to give it time to recover. This was war… no mercy. I placed a foot on the vampire to pin it in place. I pulled out my shotgun and placed it point-blank against the Turok-Han's head and pulled the trigger.

* * *

…Everyone's universe had turned upside down as the robot came through the door. Buffy was tensing up and wondering on how she would deal with this threat. This was no Adam that was coming through the door… this was something even more serious and deadly. The robot was huge… It had to be at least 7 feet tall and was massively built… The color of the metal was a green color, but it seem to blend into the darkness… The head was like a helmet with a gold color visor. You could not see inside through the visor but when the robot looked at you, you felt like it was staring right into you.

The robot turned its head and looked at Buffy and everyone else in the group and then it spoke, "Is everyone okay?" It was a strong and serious voice that spoke, everyone was still in shock and all they could do was nod, Buffy managed to get out a very quiet "Yes".

Buffy watched as the robot stepped towards the Turok-Han which lay in a pitiful crumpled pile on the stairs. The robot proceeded to step on the vampire to pin it in place and then the robot pulled a large gun from its back and placed the barrel against the vampire's head and then pulled the trigger… The gun went off with a large boom deafening everyone.

The robot turned to everyone as the Turok-Han's head blew apart and the body turned to dust.

The robot spoke again, "Everyone wait here I need to clear out the back of the house and secure the area."

"I'll be back." added the robot as it stepped back out the front door and disappeared into the darkness. Everyone jumped as they heard several loud gunshots from outside.

Xander was absolutely sure that he had lost his mind. One moment they were all preparing for a potential final confrontation against the Turok-Han and the next moment, the scary Ubervampire was being thrown around like a ragdoll and then a huge robot comes through the door and blows the vampire's head off with a shotgun. Then to top it off, the robot says "I'll be back" just like from the Terminator movies and is gone. No wonder that Xander started to get the giggles, everyone just turned and stared at him as he could not stop giggling. The loud gunshots outside the house put an end to Xander's giggles.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Giles and Anya returned to the house, after returning from the Beljoxa's Eye's dimension. They were both trying to understand and wrap their minds around what the creature had said. As they approached the house, they saw that the door was smashed open.

Giles immediately thought the worse and rushed into the house. He expected the worse and all he found was everyone sitting or standing around in muted shock. He saw Buffy, Xander, Willow and Dawn together talking with each other. Everyone seemed stunned.

Giles approached the group and asked, "What happened? Is everyone alright?"

Buffy and the group turned and looked at Giles as if he had just arrived from another planet.

Giles again asked almost demanding, "What is going on here?"

Buffy finally spoke up, "Bringers and the Turok-Han attacked the house, we were going to lead the creature away from here and I was going to fight it, but something happened and our plans changed…"

"What do you mean plans changed? Where is the Turok-Han and the Bringers? Is anyone hurt?" Giles was getting confused and frustrated by the situation and responses.

"Everyone is fine and no one is hurt" Willow spoke out answering part of Giles's questions.

"The Bringers and the Turok-Han are all…" Buffy began to say.

"…Dead!" Xander completed the sentence.

Both Giles and Anya looked shocked at the response. Anya responded first, "Did you guys kill them?"

"Uuhh no, we didn't kill anyone here." Buffy responded.

"Then who killed them?" demanded Giles.

"That did…" Xander responded as he pointed behind Giles and Anya.

Giles and Anya both turned around hesitantly and looked back at the shattered doorway, out of the darkness stepping into the light of the house was what appeared to be a huge robot that was carrying a number of firearms.

* * *

I had done a sweep of the house and yard and had taken out the remaining Bringers. As I was doing a clean-up and disposing of the remains, my motion sensors had picked up the approach of two more targets. The threat analysis computer had determined that they were non-hostile and as they approached and I got a better look at them, I recognized Giles and Anya.

"So the question is now what do I do and how I play this situation as there is no more hiding from them?" I said to myself.

Adriana responded to his rhetorical question, "Well you have two options. One, you can tell them everything and deal with the results. Or two, you can tell them selective information for now until we know more of what is going on and find out who we can rely upon to share our story with."

"Well if I'm going to be deceptive with them, I have to make sure I am consistent in my story." I responded to Adriana.

"First thing to lying is to hide a kernel of truth in the lie to make it believable." Adriana replied.

"That's pretty human for an AI." I responded taking a jab at Adriana.

The AI replied with a huff to the perceived insult.

"But you do make a case for it Adriana. They think I am a robot." I spoke as I had been listening in to the group's conversations with my audio sensors. "I think I will continue the charade for now…"

* * *

Giles and Anya both stared up at the "robot" and stood transfixed and speechless.

The robot spoke first, "The area is secure and all enemy targets have been neutralized."

Giles managed to speak, "Who… What are you?"

I smiled inside my helmet and responded, "I am Spartan-113. I am designed to defend and protect humanity."

Everyone was taken aback by the response. Xander asked another set of questions, "Who built you? Why are you here?"

"I was designed by the military for combat. I have been assigned to Sunnydale to monitor and protect against threats to the planet and the human race" I responded.

Xander shrugged his shoulders, "Well it all makes sense to me now. Owww" Xander said as Buffy slapped him on the shoulder.

"Will you get serious, Xander" Buffy spoke out.

"Agreed" said Giles

"How long have you been here?" Giles asked the "robot"

"I have been in the Sunnydale area for the last 3 years… I have been monitoring all enemy activity and threats to the human race during that time." I responded again.

Buffy was suddenly very worried, "Are you connected with the Initiative and Adam?"

Giles, Xander, Anya and Willow all tensed up at the mention of the Initiative and Adam, remembering the events surrounding that encounter.

"No I am not connected with the Initiative or related in any way to Adam." I said to the obvious relief of all involved.

"I was aware of the Initiative project and the incident with Adam." I added.

"…incident with Adam… that's a major understatement." Xander muttered under his breath.

I continued, "I have been monitoring your group and its activities for the last 3 years."

Buffy finally asked the obvious question, "If you have been here for 3 years, why haven't you helped us in the past and why are you helping us now?"

I had to phrase my response carefully, "I have been monitoring and preparing for the last 3 years. I have been ready to step in at those times you were not able to defeat the enemy. I have been acting as the final line of defense in case you failed. I have watched you deal with Adam, Glorificus (this arched some eyebrows) and when Willow turned evil and was going to destroy the world (Willow turned red with her past history being mentioned). In each situation, I was there watching and waiting in the event that you failed to prevail and I would step in to protect humanity. Each time you prevailed and there was no need to reveal myself."

"But why now?" Buffy repeated.

I answered the question, "The threat posed by this newest enemy, requires that I now step in to intervene and make my presence known. Your chances of a successful outcome were low."

Buffy turned to Giles and said, "So what do we do now?"

I decided to provide my input now, "I have a suggestion, if you would be willing to hear?" This caught everyone's attention by the tone and content coming from a robot.

"Go ahead, we're all ears." came Buffy's response.

"I have a warehouse location for my base. It has facilities to provide room for everyone and allow for training and planning. I can provide security for the building to protect from Bringers and other threats."

Buffy suddenly spoke, "Damn it, with all this going on, we forgot to get Spike back."

"No problem." I said. "You and I can retrieve him and then meet everyone at the warehouse location."

I turned to Giles and said, "I will provide you the address of the warehouse and a one-time use access code to get you into the site. You will take everyone there and wait for Buffy and I to return with Spike."

Giles took what the robot said as more of an order than a request. He replied hesitantly, "I understand, but what about security from further Bringer attacks and The First."

"The compound is secure against direct attacks and has surveillance and monitoring equipment to detect anyone approaching the compound." I replied.

With that Buffy and I left to go rescue Spike.

* * *

Spike was drifting in and out of consciousness. He was in extreme pain from the torture that the Bringers and Turok-Han had inflicted upon him at the behest of The First.

How many times he had imagined that Buffy would come and rescue him and make him feel better. He saw Buffy many times, but it was always The First assuming Buffy's image to taunt and torment him.

Spike saw Buffy approaching him again… He knew this was another mirage as he thought he saw through his hazy vision a robot standing in the cave entrance way holding a big gun…

"You can't hurt me anymore… You're not real… You're not real and you can't hurt me…" Spike managed to mumble out.

The image of Buffy stopped beside him and looked at him with such sadness and compassion. Spike was taken aback by the look in the Buffy mirage's eyes… Then she pulled out a knife and Spike tensed up…

* * *

Buffy saw Spike tied to the cave wall, he was showing the obvious effects of vicious torture. Buffy approached Spike. She had left the Spartan robot at the cave entrance to keep a watch.

As she got closer to Spike, she heard him mumble "You're not real and you can't hurt me…" As Buffy was able to see the torture that Spike had endured, her eyes glistened with tears. She could see his pain, but also his determination to endure. She pulled out a knife to free Spike…

* * *

Spike was tensing waiting for the knife to stab him. He said to himself, "You're not real… You can't hurt me." His tense apprehension turned to surprise as the Buffy-mirage did not stab him, but cut the rope straps that were restraining him. Spike hesitated and reached out and touched the Buffy-mirage and felt her flesh and warmth.

"My god… You came… You came for me." Spike said with emotion at the realization that this was real and not another dream and he collapsed into Buffy's arms.

Buffy was supporting Spike and asked, "Are you going to be able to walk?"

Spike replied, "I'll bloody well crawl out of here if I need to."

I witnessed what was going on from a distance. I called out, "Does he need any assistance to move?"

"What the bloody hell was that?" Spike blurted out.

"Uh, Spike that is a new friend… It is called a Spartan and believe it or not it is a robot and killed the Turok-Han and a pile of Bringers. It is here to help us fight The First." Buffy said.

"Now I know for sure that I'm imagining all this…" was Spike's reply as they walked out of the cave and the Spartan provided cover.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Giles, Anya, Willow, Dawn and Xander had gathered the potentials and put some clothing and supplies together and had left for the warehouse location provided by the Spartan. They had gotten some vehicles and drove in a convoy to the address provided.

As they drove and Giles checked the address he thought to himself, "This address provided, that's strange but in all the years fighting vampires and demons in Sunnydale, I don't think we ever had to go to this end of the town for any dealings… But that would make sense, when you have a combat robot that is designed to fight and protect humans that it would keep its base area clear of activity."

"Was this the new powerful force that the Beljoxa's Eye had talked about that made even The First take pause?" Giles continued his train of thought as everything he thought he knew had turned upside down tonight.

"I pray to God this is what we have been waiting for." Giles mumbled to himself.

The convoy reached the outer gate of the warehouse. Giles saw that there were two fences, an inner and outer fence. It looked well reinforced with razor wire at the top and along the bottom of the inner fence. The fence was well lit all along with good fields of vision and all brush and potential cover cleared away at least 200m to the tree line. Giles noted that there appeared to be security cameras all along the fences. The whole place looked like a prison, but it also appeared secure and could provide the promise of security and protection.

Giles drove up to the gate and saw a keypad and speaker unit at the gate. He rolled down his window and punched in the one-time access code that the Spartan had provided him. The light on the unit turned green and the gate began to open. Giles was about to roll up his window when a voice came through the speaker on the unit startling him.

"Access has been authorized. Go to the right and drive towards the loading dock area. The garage door will open to allow you to park inside to unload." came a female voice though the speaker.

"Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?" was all Giles could say as he recovered from his startled state of mind.

The female voice replied, "Please proceed to the designated area to unload. Further information will be provided inside. Thank you."

As they pulled around the warehouse, Giles saw a large door opening and the light on inside. "Time to ride boldly on…" Giles thought to himself and he drove into the warehouse followed by the other vehicles.

* * *

_The being called The First was watching the convoy enter the warehouse. The First was currently assuming the form of a potential that the Bringers had killed several days before. Normally it loved being able to walk among humans and to manipulate the others to sow discord and distrust. This would normally thrill it, but The First was not a happy being. It had looked forward to the Turok-Han and the Bringers breaking into the Slayer's house and killing everyone except for the Slayer. It had wanted the Slayer to watch everyone die. It had wanted the Slayer to know despair and helplessness._

_That plan was now in ashes (both figuratively and literally). It had sensed that there was a new power in play, but it had no idea as to what it actually was. What that machine did to its precious Turok-Han and how it cut down all its Bringers. That show of power gave The First some pause as to what it should do next. This latest development would cause plans to change and be adjusted, but the final goal was still achievable._

_The First would need to study and watch more. This location looked like it had been secured against attack, but it would be tested. The Bringers and Turok-Hans were only tools to be used to achieve its goals. Yes, further watching was needed to find a weakness.  
_

* * *

Giles, Willow, Dawn and Xander along with the potentials were settling into their new accommodations. Giles had been very impressed with the layout and the facilities that they were in. "Someone has spent a lot of time preparing and knows what they are doing."

What was most impressive was that the voice that had greeted them at the gate had introduced itself when they had entered the warehouse. They were being directed by a computer system AI that called itself (or herself) Adriana. It had provided a running commentary of the layout and facilities and an update of the situation around the warehouse and Sunnydale. Willow had been in nerd heaven on discovering that the warehouse had its own AI. When Willow wasn't bombarding Adriana with technical questions, Adriana was answering questions from the others wandering around.

"Sweet setup" Xander chimed in interrupting Giles's train of thought.

"Yes… this is most impressive." Giles answered echoing his earlier inner thoughts.

Dawn raced in… "This place is awesome… Did you see the living room area? It is huge and has three TVs and a pool table." She said with the excitement of a kid in a candy store.

A female voice added, "I am glad that you are finding the accommodations acceptable. We have tried to build a facility that would meet not only training and security needs, but provide a comfortable atmosphere."

"Speaking of training?" Giles asked.

"The training, exercise and armory are located in the lower level. The lower level can be accessed by two different secure entry ways through the north and south fire exits." Adriana responded.

"How do we access the secure areas?" Giles quizzed the AI testing the limits of this new relationship.

"I have already recorded face and voice recognition of everyone here. I will record biometric info for everyone to provide another level of security. Everyone will have full access to all areas in our base except for the Spartan restricted control areas." Adriana responded.

"Spartan control areas?" Giles asked.

"The Spartan will determine if and when access will be granted to those areas."

Giles was a little concerned, but overall he was optimistic about the whole situation.

Adriana asked, "Would you like to view the training, exercise and armory areas?"

"Yes, please."

After everyone had been down to see the lower levels they returned to the common area.

Xander was the first to speak, "All I can say is… Wow!"

"I think wow is a little over dramatic, but yes it was most impressive." Giles added in the always British way of understating things.

"Did you not see all the guns and all the other weapons that are down there?" Xander asked sarcastically.

"Well all in all things are starting to look up" Willow spoke optimistically.

"Yes things are looking better." said Giles.

* * *

"It's not looking good." Buffy whispered.

Buffy was still helping Spike to walk to the warehouse. The "robot" had provided them with directions to the warehouse in case they became separated. It wasn't too long before Buffy and Spike had lost sight of the Spartan. Buffy and Spike had taken cover in an alley as they had seen a large group of Bringers wandering around.

"So the bloody robot is a bloody coward?" Spike said with some pain as he was still recovering from the torture and abuse that he had suffered.

"I don't think it would ditch us. After the beating it laid on the Turok-Han, I can't see it now being afraid." Buffy replied.

"So where did it go?" asked Spike.

It was just then that the group of Bringers started to approach their hiding spot.

"Oh Bloody Hell!" Spike said in a whisper.

Buffy silently agreed with Spike's assessment and she tensed for the inevitable confrontation.

Just as she prepared herself for combat, suddenly something dropped from the roof into the middle of the group of Bringers. It took her a moment to recognize it as the Spartan. It had dropped quickly and quietly into the group and she saw a flash gleam that she recognized as knife and in less than minute there were ten dead Bringers on the ground. It had happened so fast that Buffy swore if she had blinked she would have missed it.

"My God!" was all that Spike could say on witnessing what the Spartan had done to the Bringers.

All Buffy could do was nod her head in agreement with Spike's observation.

A voice called out, "Area is secure. You can come out now. I did a sweep out around 500m from us and cleared out all hostiles. We should have a clear path back to the warehouse."

"How many hostiles… uhh... Bringers were around?" Buffy asked.

"Including this group… 32." came the reply from the robot that seemed to blend into the darkness.

"You just took out 32 Bringers?" Spike said with some incredibility.

"Do you want to keep moving or do you want to stop and count bodies?" replied the Spartan.

The group continued on its journey.

* * *

I watched Buffy help Spike and kept an eye on my sensors for any further movement. I had just bloodied the bad guys tonight and I was worried about an escalated response. We needed to get back to the warehouse to rest and plan for our next moves.

I didn't see any major problems getting back to base before sunrise. I opened a com channel to Adriana.

"How are our house guests settling in?" I asked.

Adriana replied back, "Everything is nominal. Everyone is settling in and I am currently making room assignments. I have given them the full tour except for those areas that you may want to limit for now."

"Sounds good. ETA to base is about 30 minutes." I responded.

"Any problems with the extract?" Adriana asked.

"Nothing I couldn't handle."

* * *

We could see the fence surrounding the warehouse and the bright lights illuminating the whole area.

"Lit up like Broadway… Think that is a good idea?" Spike commented.

"Watch and learn..." I replied.

I opened a com channel, "Adriana, we are 300m out from fence line. Dim the lights at 50m so we don't turn our vampire friend to ash."

Adriana responded, "Affirmative. I have you on my sensor net. There are no detected threats within defense area. I will dim the lights on the gate and building until you are inside. I will inform you of any detected threats."

"Roger that Adriana." I responded.

We approached closer to the brightly lit fence and warehouse. When we got to the 50m range, all the lights started to dim.

"What the…" Spike said as both he and Buffy stopped wondering what was happening.

I spoke to them, "It is okay, I had the lights dimmed as they are actually a special UV light that vampires do not react kindly to. As soon as we get inside the lights will go back to full intensity and that should keep the Turok-Han and any other vampires away."

"What about Bringers and other demons?" Buffy asked.

"The fence is electrified and the whole area is monitored out to 1000m for any threats. We also have some automated guns to cover larger areas inside the fence." I responded to Buffy's question.

"What happens if they get past those defenses?" Buffy asked again.

"Then they have to deal with me…" I replied.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**_On route to Sunnydale, California – December 11, 2002 – 2042 PST_**

Willow had picked up Faith from Angel's place in Los Angeles. The car ride started with a lot of tension in the air. There was a lot of past history between Faith and Willow along with everyone else in Sunnydale. Willow was nervous and just started chatting nervously not really thinking about what she was saying.

"So, must be nice to be out of prison…" Willow chatted nervously.

"Well yea…" as Faith replied sarcastically.

"Well I do miss the 3 square meals… I don't miss the group showers, but from what I hear that might be more your tastes." Faith replied taking obvious delight in rattling Willow as she saw Willow's eyes widen and she tried to sputter out a reply…

"Don't worry about it Red. I'm just having some fun with you… Gotta have a sense of humor to survive doing hard time." continued Faith.

"Okay..." was all that Willow could manage to say.

They drove in silence for a while. Faith finally broke the silence as she'd had enough quiet time, "So what's the situation in good old Sunnydale? I'm surprised that you even need me."

"It's pretty serious... A big bad called The First is stirring trouble in the Hellmouth and there is a new type of vampire… It's called a Turok-Han or as we refer to it as the Ubervamp as these things are stronger and more deadly than any vampire we have ever faced…" Willow replied in a serious tone.

"The First?" Faith asked "What's his deal?"

"Buffy has faced it before, from what we know it is the source of all evil… the first evil. It can control and manipulate others, but it doesn't appear to have a corporeal form…" Willow could see Faith's puzzled look at that and quickly explained, "I mean it doesn't have any form and can't interact as far as we know with anything on this side of the Hellmouth."

Willow continued, "There are also the followers of The First, they are called Bringers. They have been hunting all the girls that could become the slayer after Buffy or you… Well you know..."

"Yea... I know… if one of us dies another girl gets "chosen" to replace us. So these slayer-wannabes are being knocked off by these Bringer guys?" Faith replied as she was getting a grasp of the situation.

Faith continued, "That would explain why someone tried to knife me in prison, before I left to help Angel. It would have been nice to have had some warning or don't I rate at least that much consideration?" Faith was getting somewhat upset at being forgotten and excluded again.

Willow tried to calm Faith, "We didn't think you would be at risk in prison, we thought they would leave you alone and behind bars you would be safer…"

"Whatever…" as Faith dismissed Willows attempted apology. "Is that it?"

"That's pretty much it… though we refer to the girls as "potentials". Giles has been bringing the girls to Sunnydale to give them protection and get them training and preparing."

"So the good old G-Man is still around… So we have any other watchers to help?"

Willow paused for a second and then continued, "The Watchers and Watchers Council are gone… The First and his helpers have taken them all out… They blew up the Watcher's headquarters. There might be a few Watchers left, but they are scattered and won't be able to help us..."

"Oh great… so what do we have to face the First Evil, Bringers and these Ubervamps as you call them… A couple of Slayers, the Scooby gang, a single Watcher and a bunch of slayer-wannabes… I think I would like to go back to prison now…" Faith replied with a more serious sarcastic tone now.

Willow smiled, "It's not as all bad as you would think… We have a really powerful ally that we didn't even know existed until a few days ago and this ally goes a long way to balancing out the scales against us…"

Willow went on to explain about the events that occurred at Buffy's house and their encounter with the Spartan "robot".

All that Faith could say after hearing the story that Willow laid out was… "You're kidding… right?"

* * *

Faith and Willow arrived back in Sunnydale a couple of hours later. Faith noticed that they weren't headed to Buffy's house.

"So big red, what's the story? Where are we headed? Where is everybody?" Faith asked.

"Well it appears that this Spartan robot has been preparing for this type of confrontation for the last couple of years. He… it has established a base in an abandoned warehouse." Willow could see Faith roll her eyes at the statement. "It's not what you think… It has been fixed up really nice… sleeping areas for everyone, training areas, kitchen area… a really nice setup and the warehouse has a good security setup monitored by the Spartan 24/7 rain or shine."

"Sounds like you have everything you need… Why do you need me?" Faith asked again.

"Buffy said we need everyone for this battle and whether you like it or not you are still a Slayer." was Willow's reply.

They drove through town and reached the warehouse. Willow drove up to the gate and input her access code into the panel. Willow was then prompted by a female voice through the security panel to provide voice access confirmation. Willow spoke "Uhhh… Hello… This is Willow."

"Voice access confirmed… Access granted." came the female sounding reply through the security panel speaker. The security gate then opened.

While this was all going on, Faith was checking out the warehouse and the security surrounding it. She was impressed by it all. "Looks just like a prison." Faith thought gloomily to herself.

The vehicle pulled around to the loading dock area and pulled into the opening door of the warehouse.

As they pulled into the warehouse, Faith's gloomy feeling started to pass as she got an inside look of the warehouse. "Not bad." She thought to herself.

They had pulled into an area designated as a car park. A number of different types of vehicles were parked inside. There was a tarp covering over some sort of huge vehicle off to the side.

Willow parked the car and got out. "Well we're here… Home Sweet Home kind of… Let's show you around and get you settled."

Faith got out and followed Willow. As they walked a female voice spoke to them from nowhere in particular. "Welcome back Willow. I see you brought back the other Slayer. I hope your trip was uneventful."

Faith was taken aback by the voice. "What's up with that?" she asked.

"That is Adriana… She is the computer AI that oversees everything in the warehouse…" said Willow.

"And do not forget I monitor everything outside as well…" added the voice with a chuckle.

"Before I forget my manners… Adriana… This is Faith. Faith meet Adriana." Willow spoke.

"Hey Adriana..." Faith spoke hesitantly.

"Hello Faith. I have recorded your facial features and your voice imprint for security access. If you have any questions just call out for me."

Faith noticed all the security cameras placed around on the walls that appeared to give coverage of every area.

"Thanks." Faith replied.

Willow and Faith walked up some steps from the parking area into the living space areas. As they passed through from the vehicle area to the living area, they went through what appeared to be a heavily reinforced security door.

"Some pretty heavy security… huh?" Faith noted.

"Yup." replied Willow, she continued "As Adriana explained to me, there are several entrances for vehicles and people. Those are the weak points and there are security doors that can lock down and isolate areas from attack… Did I get that right Adriana?"

"Yes you did…" came the computer voice reply.

"Where is everybody?" asked Willow.

"Personnel are located in the common area, kitchen area or in their rooms. The Spartan is on a security patrol of the perimeter and should be back inside the base within 30 minutes." responded the very informative computer voice.

Willow lead Faith through the hallway and it opened up into a large area. She was surprised to how open and comfortable it looked. There were couches and chairs to allow people to sit and relax. There were several large screen televisions spread around the area to allow everyone to watch movies or shows of their choice. It appeared that someone had put some thought into the design and layout to make it an area for everyone to unwind and relax.

Willow could see that Faith was impressed. "We also have full Internet access and a satellite dish. The computer setup is pretty impressive… all the latest equipment."

Faith wasn't too much into the computer nerd stuff, "What else is there?"

"Well there is a well-stocked and large kitchen, conference room for meetings, workout and exercise rooms, armory and firing range. This place has everything a small army needs." Willow said with a smile.

"What about sleeping arrangements?" Faith quizzed back.

"Even better…" was Willows reply. "On the second floor there is a setup of rooms just like a college dorm… two to a room and pretty comfortable."

"Great… Just like college." Faith replied under her breath.

Willow didn't hear Faith's comment as it was at this moment that Buffy and Giles came towards them.

"Hello Faith." Buffy spoke with some unease in her voice.

"Hey B long time no see or no fight." Faith spoke trying to lighten the tense moment.

"Hello Faith" spoke Giles with the same unease in his voice.

"Hey Giles… Willow has been bringing me up to speed on the current situation and giving me the grand tour of this place. Looks like you have everything you need." said Faith.

"Yes it appears that we are quite lucky that our new ally has established quite an elaborate base of operations and it does give us an opportunity to train and plan for the upcoming fight." Giles said with some obvious tenseness in his voice.

"So where do I bunk and when do I get to meet this robot?" Faith said.

* * *

I had just finished doing a perimeter sweep and was headed back into the base. On tonight's sweep I had encountered "only" five Bringers. It appeared that they were only there to keep a watch on us, but I took care of them quickly. It appeared that The First had decided to scale back operations around our base and was feeling some sensitivity to losses as I had been thinning its ranks constantly. It was a pleasant diversion to have a "quiet" night.

I did a com check-in with Adriana, "Adriana, situation report?

"Michael, all sectors look clear and it appears that it will be a quiet night." Adriana reported.

"Sounds good, I'm just finishing up my sweep and will be back inside the perimeter in 15 minutes. Anything else I need to know?"

"We have a new house guest. Willow has returned from Los Angeles with the other Slayer."

"Yea, that's right. Buffy mentioned that there was another Slayer in LA and that they wanted to bring her here. It will be an asset to have another Slayer with us." I said.

"Agreed, this is a positive development." Adriana said.

"I forgot to ask… What's the other Slayer's name?" I asked.

"Her name is Faith…" replied Adriana.

* * *

I went to the common area after my patrol sweep. Adriana had informed me that everyone was there. I guess with the arrival of the other Slayer it would generate some excitement among my "house guests".

I entered the common area and saw the crowd gathered around a female with brunette hair. Her back was to me, but I started to get a weird feeling. There was something about her. I got further into the common area. I could see Willow talking to this Slayer and pointing towards me and waving. This Slayer turned towards me… I stopped in my tracks… I couldn't believe it. It was the young woman who had been in my dreams all those years ago on a planet in another universe.

Faith was trying to not feel uncomfortable with everyone around. Willow was talking up a storm and Buffy and Giles were just watching and only asking a few questions. Faith could see that they were sizing her up trying to figure out where she stood.

It was starting to get a little too much, when Willow said, "Ohh… Here it comes… Here comes the Spartan."

Faith relieved for a change in the conversation turned to take a look at this robot. She turned and she had to blink as she couldn't really believe what she was actually looking at a robot. It was standing there and it seemed to be staring at her. As if the situation wasn't already uncomfortable enough, here was this huge robot just staring at her.

"Hey tinman! Anyone home?"

All I could do was stare at her. It took me quite a long moment to recover and notice that she was talking to me.

"Hello" was all I could manage to say.

"Well this robot is brimming over with conversation or maybe it's me…" Faith laughingly said to Willow.

I had never been caught feeling so out of joint or flat-footed in my whole life. I finally managed to regain some of my composure, "I have checked and cleared the perimeter. If you will excuse me, I have some tasks to complete. It was nice to meet you Faith."

With that I turned and left the area. I tried not to run or trip over my feet as I left. I heard Faith say to someone, "It doesn't say much, but at least it is polite."

I called up Adriana on the com channel, "I want to know everything about Faith and I mean no stone left unturned and I want this as a priority…"

Adriana replied warily, "What's wrong Michael? Your bio readings are somewhat abnormal… higher pulse rate… respiration higher…"

"Never mind that… I'll be fine… I want to know everything about her ASAP. Understood?"

"Understood" replied the AI


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Faith had gotten uncomfortable and bored down in the common area and she wasn't ready to go to sleep in her room. She wandered around the warehouse and found a stairwell door. She tried the door and it was locked. Faith sighed aloud.

"Do you wish to access the roof?" came a voice out of nowhere.

"Uhhh… Sure." Faith replied with a start.

Faith heard a click and she tried the door. The door opened.

"Due to security the door will lock behind you. Just let me know when you want to come back in and I will unlock it." spoke the computer voice.

"Sure… Thanks… Adriana is it?" Faith spoke.

"That is correct…"

Faith made her way on to the roof top of the warehouse. It looked like someone had spent some time creating a sitting area to spend time there. The view of the night sky was spectacular. Faith moved over behind one of the air vent units and sat down and lit up a smoke and stared at the night sky. She needed a break, it was difficult coming back to Sunnydale and having to face everyone again with all the past history and stuff that had occurred between them… especially between her and Buffy.

Faith was lost in her thoughts, that she didn't hear the Spartan come up on the roof. She heard some gravel scuff and turned her head slowly using her Slayer senses and training not to draw attention to herself. She saw the robot… "What was the name it called itself… oh yea… Spartan-113." She thought to herself.

She watched it walk on the roof. It was hard to believe that something that big could move that smoothly and quietly for a robot, but as it had explained, it had been designed for combat. She watched the robot move into the sitting area and stand there and look up into the sky. It appeared as the robot was contemplating the night sky… "Pretty silly for a robot to be staring at stars…" thought Faith.

Faith decided to move…

* * *

My mind had been in a continual haze, ever since Faith had shown up in the warehouse. I found it hard to concentrate when I recognized her as the girl from my dreams back on PX-2235. It seemed like those dreams were a lifetime ago. I didn't know if I should approach her and I knew that tactically I was locked into this course of action and that I had to maintain my cover as a robot for now. I needed some time and space to clear my mind and regain focus.

I made my way to the roof of the warehouse. Over the time that I had been "stranded" in this universe, I could go to the roof to view the night sky. I could recognize most of the major constellations, since I been to a lot of worlds in those star systems… "_Become a Spartan and see the galaxy…_" I smiled to myself inside my helmet. I found it relaxing to see something that was constant and that I could relate to even if it was an alternate universe.

I looked up at the night sky, nothing on the motion scanners in range. "_Damn… It would be nice to take off the helmet and get some fresh air… I've gotten spoiled to not having to wear my armor all the time until recently._" I thought.

I heard a noise from someone/something moving…

* * *

"Whoa! Easy there robo-warrior… I'm Faith… remember friend…. One of the good guys!" Faith said this as she stared into the barrel of a really big handgun… She had never seen anyone (including Buffy or herself) move that fast. One moment the robot was standing there and the next a gun was drawn and the robot was pointing at her head…

It took a moment and the robot seemed to relax and then it put the gun away…

"Damn… I didn't even know she was up here…" I swore to myself as I had moved into a combat stance with my side arm drawn and pointed at Faith as soon as I heard the noise.

"_I almost killed her…_" which was a very sobering thought.

"She was so quiet she didn't even register on my motion sensors. She's good…, but then she is a Slayer." I thought.

I lowered and holstered my side arm as soon as I recognized Faith and could hear her words trying to identify herself.

I spoke to Faith, "Sorry, I didn't know you or anyone was up here… You were pretty quiet."

"Occupational hazard I guess…" replied Faith, "Why are you up here?"

I had to be careful with my response as I did not want to give away my true identity yet.

"I came up here to check the warehouse perimeter and make sure there are no problems."

"If I didn't know better, I would think you were looking at the stars rather than checking any perimeter." was Faith's response.

"_Damn… again._" I thought.

"I do like to come up here some times to view the night sky and think…" I responded to Faith catching me in a lie.

"So you're not only a fighting robot, but also a thinking robot… huh?" Faith asked. "What do you like to think about?"

This was getting into some dangerous territory, but I enjoyed this chance to talk Faith and maybe get to know her.

"What brings you up here?" as I tried to change the subject. "I thought you would be downstairs with everybody?"

I saw Faith squirm as I mentioned this.

"I just spent the last couple of years in a crowded prison where personal space was at a premium and I needed some alone time. Also Buffy and me aren't exactly bosom buddies. We have a lot of history between us which is too say the least somewhat colorful."

When I had first met Faith and I realized who she was, I asked Adriana to pull up whatever info she could dig up on Faith. I had viewed her police and prison record. She had been doing time for murder until she had broken out of jail recently.

"You were in prison?" I asked trying to steer the conversation.

"Yea, I killed some people and did some other things that I'm not too proud of… Can we change the topic, I don't feel like discussing past events." Faith replied uncomfortably.

"No problem… what do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"I don't know…"

"Okay… how about we start with the basics… Do you have a favorite color?"

"You're kidding me right?" Faith replied sarcastically.

"Well we have to talk about something?"

If she didn't know that this was robot, Faith could almost swear that it was smiling and flirting with her. She was almost ready to tell it to leave her alone and go away, but for some reason she wanted the robot to stay and she wanted to talk.

"I like red…" was Faith's reply.

* * *

Later on I retired to my private quarters to "recharge" as I told Faith. I replayed the whole conversation with Faith in my mind. I had never had a conversation like that with anyone before except for maybe Adriana. I was already anticipating the next time Faith and I could be together. I couldn't explain or understand the thoughts and feelings I was having.

The equivalent of an electronic cough interrupted his thoughts, "Ahhh... Michael do you not think you are getting too involved with this Slayer? She is distracting you at this critical time."

"I don't think so Adriana, I have never felt like this before and I find it quite enjoyable." I responded.

I took the time to get out of my battle armor and get a couple of hours of shut eye. Sun rise was only a couple of hours away and it was going to be another busy day.

* * *

I continued to observe Buffy, Giles with their training of the potentials. I wasn't ready to intervene to take over the training regimen. I was continuing with the masquerade of pretending to be a "robot". They did appreciate having the warehouse to use for living and training as that did give them more space rather than cramming everyone in at Buffy's house. I focused on security for the warehouse, but I looked forward to the night times when I could go back to the roof and find Faith up there. Most times we would talk about nothing in particular… the events of the day, training, The First.

Faith looked forward to the roof top encounters as well. She couldn't explain it. She wasn't the conversational type, but she enjoyed being up there with the Spartan as she felt comfortable and safe. It wasn't a feeling that she had enjoyed much during her life.

Their latest night time encounter on the roof had Faith sitting on the bench and Michael (always in battle armor) sitting across from her on the edge of the roof with one leg stretched out and leaning against an air conditioning unit.

"_Damn… how can a robot look so relaxed like that?_" thought Faith. "_If I didn't know better I would swear it was human..._"

Again the conversation bounced around as always. Faith let out a shiver. "Brrrr… it's getting chilly."

I checked the sensor info on my helmet display, "The ambient temperature has decreased, but this is expected due to the changing season." I said playing the robot role.

"If you mean that it is getting colder because it's winter... Then yea... No kidding Sherlock…" Faith replied with a humorous sarcastic tone.

Faith continued, "Too bad you don't have a coat or sweater you could lend me… Well... I guess it's time to turn in."

I didn't want this end, I spoke up… "I don't have a coat or sweater, but I can generate a low level EM field to heat my armor so that you can sit next to me and stay warm."

"Why Mr. Spartan… If I didn't know better I would say that you were asking me to cuddle with you." Faith teased.

I could feel myself blush inside my helmet. I stuttered out, "Ah… no… That's not what I meant… I just said if you were cold you could sit closer to me to get warm…"

"Don't have a meltdown big guy… I was just funning with you." replied a laughing Faith.

Faith stood up and moved over to where I was sitting. I started to move to sit up.

"You look comfortable, don't move." Faith said.

Faith sat on my lap and leaned back into me snuggling up. "You were right… mmmm… You feel toasty warm."

I was feeling decidedly uncomfortable and unexpectedly awkward, but I was also feeling quite happy.

Faith could see that the Spartan was feeling awkward with the situation and was enjoying making it feel that way. She noticed how the Spartan was holding its arms and she reached out and grabbed one arm and then the other and had them wrap around her to keep her warm.

"There isn't that better now?" asked Faith.

"It's fine…" I replied in what was the understatement of a lifetime.

"Only fine… I'll give you fine…" as Faith tried to elbow me in the ribcage area.

"Owww! Damn I forgot you were made of metal." Faith chuckled.

She felt relaxed and comfortable. I felt honestly the happiest I had ever been.

Both of them never realized that they had crossed some unspoken boundary in their relationship and that would have major repercussions for both of them and the world...

* * *

From then on, they would spend their nights on the roof, with Faith snuggled into Michael's battle armor. Sometimes they would talk and other times they would just be there watching the night sky.

Faith started feeling more comfortable with the Spartan and the conversations would start to turn to more personal subjects. Faith felt able to talk to this robot… this Spartan… about her life. She spoke about her childhood, with her mom being drunk and dad in prison. She talked about her dreams and nightmares… about her first watcher that was killed by Kakistos… She talked about her darkness and her fears…

"Boy, the first time that I can actually talk to a man and it turns out to be a robot… I have such lousy luck with men." Faith thought to herself.

During this time, I just listened and never spoke out any words of judgment. How could I judge her when I had committed more violent acts and had caused or been a part of pain and suffering on a galactic scale.

They were both searching for that rare universal gift… peace and contentment.

* * *

The others had started to notice the close relationship developing between Faith and the Spartan during this time. Everyone noticed that the Spartan would turn and look at Faith when she entered a room and that Faith would smile at the Spartan at being noticed. They would see how the Spartan would watch as Faith trained with the others each day and they knew about how Faith and the Spartan spent their evenings on the rooftop.

There was some talk and concern between the others about the relationship, but considering the circumstances that everyone was facing and some of the relationships that everyone had been involved with at one time or another, they just shrugged and were thankful that the Spartan was on their side and that it now seemed that they actually had a chance at defeating The First and its followers.

* * *

It had been six weeks since Faith had joined up with the group in Sunnydale. Things were settling into a daily routine of training, meals and hanging out in the evening. This night everyone was gathered in the common area after another day of training. I had just come in from a perimeter sweep.

Each night I had caught a number of Bringers prowling the perimeter of the warehouse. It was apparent that they were probing the perimeter, trying to find a way in. The numbers of Bringers, I encountered each night, had started to go up again after being flat for a while.

The UV lighting system was keeping the Turok-Hans at bay. On some nights, I had been doing some long range patrols on Search and Destroy missions. I had encountered a few individual Turok-Han vampires on those sweeps and I had taken them out easily.

Sunnydale had seen a continual exodus of the population (both human and non-human). It was only those few hardy souls that had barricaded themselves up in their homes that stayed now. Something was building up and it was only a matter of time before it got really ugly. I would need to do something soon to get everyone trained and ready.

* * *

_The being called The First Evil raged in anger. Its minions had not been able to penetrate into the area where the Slayer, her friends, and especially the potentials were located. That damned machine could track down anything that got close to the fence and kill it. Something had to be done… Those "people" were feeling safe and gaining confidence each day… This was not going according to the plan… They had to be fearful and had to know that they were doomed. It was time to make another appearance… Yes it was time to appear inside their "fortress" and let them know that IT could reach them anywhere and that their machine could not protect them… Yes that should be fun… _

* * *

The First appeared in the common area to everyone's shock. The First taunted everyone in the room appearing as one of the dead potentials, "You think you can stop me… I am eternal… I am the original sin… I will spread from the Hellmouth across this pitiful town and as I spread, my power will grow and I will gain form… Once I have form, I will…"

"…Die a horrible death as I put a bullet through your head or better yet rip your head from your body." I interrupted.

"You all think your machine can stop me… But it is just a machine… It can be broken and destroyed… It is just a machine… My hordes will tear it apart." The First spoke with hate dripping from its tone.

"I am something much worse than any simple machine…" said the Spartan.

"Oh… what could be worse than a machine?" taunted The First.

To everyone's surprise in the room the Spartan reached up and it appeared that it was pulling its head off.

In a moment that seemed to slow down, the "robot head" came off revealing a very human face of a man that appeared to be in his late 40's with a tan complexion. He had very rugged and distinctive features (some women would consider them attractive). He had a large scar that ran down vertically on the left hand side of his face. His hair was a dark brown with greying at the temples in a short military style cut. The man had striking brown eyes that had a hard edge to them that showed resolution and determination.

The voice of the man spoke in a firm deep authoritative tone answering The First's question, "A human being…"


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Everyone stood looking in shock at the "robot" with a human head. I could see everyone stare at me with their mouths open. I took notice especially of Faith's reaction to my unveiling.

The First and I stared at each other and our eyes locked on. It seemed as if a battle of wills was taking place and for a moment it was as if The First and I were the only ones that existed.

I finally spoke after what seemed like an eternity breaking the spell and it almost appeared as if The First blinked, "Don't doubt my resolve… You don't know me as you have never faced anything like me before in your existence..." I said with no fear, hesitation or doubt in my voice.

The First replied with dismissive look, "I will be back as I am always here and will always will be here..."

"I'll be here waiting... I'm not going anywhere…" I replied.

With that The First vanished and I was left standing in a room full of shocked people that now required an explanation.

"I guess I should explain…" I said trying to get control of the situation.

"Maybe you should…" replied Buffy still trying to come to grips what she had just seen occur.

I looked towards Faith, but she refused to meet my gaze.

"Was anything you told us the truth?" Buffy said as I refocused on what was happening.

I had to pause for a moment as I had to tread carefully here otherwise it could get ugly with everyone. "Let me start from the beginning… I am not a robot… I am human. I am a soldier, but I don't belong to any military organization that you are aware of or that currently exists…"

I could see some confused and puzzled looks from my statement. "Okay let me start again. Please try to keep an open mind as some of what I'm going to say may sound... er... well kind of crazy to you." I said in a calm pleading tone.

"My name is Michael… I am what is a called a Spartan... I am a special operations soldier…" I paused for moment and took a deep breath and continued, "Okay here's the difficult part... I am not actually from this time... I come from the year 2552…"

I could see everyone get even more stunned (if that was possible) and could see some looks of disbelief. I took another breath and continued, "So... I'm from the future, but the kicker is that I come from an alternate universe and I came here by accident three years ago…" I said it in a matter of fact tone.

I was met by a room full of silence that seemed to last another eternity. Finally someone spoke breaking the stunned silence...

"So let me get this straight… You are some sort of soldier from a future alternate universe that just so happens to be super strong and can throw around Ubervamps and crush other evil baddies as if they were toys?" Xander interjected.

"Yes that seems to generally sum it all up…" I replied somewhat sheepishly as I realized how crazy I must have sounded.

"Good… I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss a thing…" Xander replied again with obvious sarcasm and confusion.

"Enough Xander…" Giles interrupted in a somewhat stern tone as he tried to take control of the situation. "Maybe you can explain everything in detail of who you are and how you got here and what your purpose is."

I took a breath and looked at Giles. I had given up trying to look at Faith as I knew that she was upset over my "misdirection" and hiding the truth from her.

"Well it is a long story, so everyone should get comfortable, but I can answer that last part first. My purpose here is simple… My mission… My oath is to protect and defend humanity…" I said.

* * *

I started from the beginning explaining my story or at least the parts I wanted them to know. I skipped over my background history as I didn't think it was necessary for them to know right now about how I became a Spartan and what I really was. I concentrated on the portions of the story that lead me to arrive in their universe. I told them that I was a special operations soldier at that I was with the UNSC. I explained that humanity in my universe was at war with aliens and that I had been on a mission on another planet light years away from earth. I explained briefly about the Forerunners and that I had been accidently transported to this universe. I explained that I had decided to remain hidden and continue my mission to protect humanity.

"So that's about it… I have been stuck here for 3 years."

"…and you have no way home." Buffy said as she finished my statement.

Giles stood there after listening to my story shaking his head at everything he had heard. Dealing with vampires, demons and ultimate evil was one thing, but I guess that time traveling alternate dimension soldiers was another thing and Giles felt somewhat out of his element.

"I think I need a drink…" was all that Giles could say.

"I have a bottle of scotch in my room…" I said showing a smirk as I could see that everyone was slowly absorbing everything I had dropped on them.

"That sounds... fine. Thank you." Giles said as he still showed his confusion.

* * *

Faith had stormed out of the common area, she couldn't stand to be around anyone... especially him right now. It was bad enough having to deal with this first evil and ubervampires, but to now be humiliated by someone's idea of playing dress up and playing mind games on her. She had dealt with enough people playing games with her throughout her whole life. She had retreated to the warehouse roof to be away from everyone, "_That bastard... That lying bastard!_" Faith thought angrily.

Faith stood on the roof looking at the night sky. The last few weeks she had spent with the Spartan had been different for her. She had opened up to the robot and talked about things she had never talked about with any other person before. She had assumed that it was just the robot doing its "robot thing", but to now know that there was a man under that helmet... _Michael_... he called himself.

Faith was a whirlwind of emotions... She was angry and she was embarrassed about how she opened up and spilled her guts about her life and feelings. She was furious at Michael, but a (small) part of her mind tried to look at everything rationally. This small inner voice noted that the whole time she was with Michael that he never asked anything of her and never said a word in judgement... He just listened to her. As she recalled how they would watch the night sky together, Faith smirked even in her current angry state of mind.

"_That bastard has a lot of explaining to do..._" Faith thought furiously as she decided to confront Michael and find out what the hell was going on...

* * *

Everyone had finally retired for the night after the "exciting" events of the evening. I had settled into my room and I talked to Adriana to get her opinion on what had happened, "So what's your take on the situation?"

"I have analyzed everyone's reactions and voice stress levels and while there is much shock at them finding out that you are not a robot… I believe that your actions to this date are evidence of your intentions. I also believe that there is much relief from the majority of the group that you are human rather than a robot or cyborg considering the past encounter with the Initiative's Adam project" Adriana reported.

She continued, "I believe that everyone will come around... Except you may have a problem with one person that may have issues with this situation. That person would be…"

"Faith" I stated as I remembered how she refused to look at me and then eventually left the common area.

"That is correct. Faith's reactions are a little bit more clouded and harder to predict considering the relationship you have developed with her during your robot masquerade."

"Thanks Adriana, I'm going to call it a night soon. Maybe I'll figure out how to deal with Faith in the morning… Good night."

"Good night Michael"

I had started to get ready to get some sleep when I heard a knock on my door. I got up hesitantly to answer it as I started to get a pretty good idea as to who was at the door.

I opened the door to find Faith standing there. "_Well it didn't take a psychic to see this confrontation coming._" I thought.

Normally I never hesitated when faced with any confrontation or combat situation, but this was all new territory to me and I hesitated, "Uhhh… Hi Faith. What can I do for you?" I said with unaccustomed nervousness in my voice.

Faith pushed open the door and stormed into the room. She paused and turned and looked at me. She had a look on her face that was a mixture of anger and sadness with a whole lot of pissed off added in for good measure.

"So what was I to you? Some kind of joke or experiment for your amusement?" Faith said with an angry tone, but not quite yelling.

She continued before I could even reply, "I know what it was… I was just there to provide you that trailer trash level of entertainment. You're like all the other guys… You just want something from me or you want into my pants… Is that why you pretended to listen to me go on? I thought I could trust you and I find out that you lied to me!"

I could see that Faith was trying to hold back a flood of emotions and experiences and what I had done was breaking that wall down. "I never lied to you…" I started to say.

"So not telling me you were a human and letting me think you were some kind of robot, so I could spill my guts out wasn't a lie?" Faith said throwing my actions back in my face.

"I never directly said I was a robot... It was a strategic necessity that I keep a low profile…" I replied uneasily knowing that it was a flimsy excuse.

"Strategic necessity? What kind of lame ass excuse is that? You're like everyone else, lording over your better lives and choices. I never asked to be a Slayer… Nobody ever gave me a say into whether I wanted to be a chosen one! Do you know what it is like to not have a say in your life and your destiny? Do you have any idea… huh do you?" Faith was now yelling and I could see the tears glistening in her eyes.

I was dumbstruck by the realization of what I had done and what it had done to Faith. That was the whole issue for her in a nutshell... Faith's hard life (especially her childhood) and then throw into the mix becoming a Slayer and everything that involves and that could result in anyone being angry, frustrated and find it hard to trust anyone.

Faith's last statement was still ringing in my ears. Faith looked at me and I didn't reply. She had a slight look of disgust on her face and she started to turn to leave my room.

I had to do something as I was struck by the thought and feeling of how important Faith had become to me and that I didn't want to lose her. I didn't want to hurt her... I wanted to... I didn't understand what I was feeling. I took the only route open to me…

"Yes, I do" I replied quietly.

Faith stopped in mid-turn and looked at me. "What did you say?"

"I know what it is like to be chosen. I know what it is like to have no control in what you become."

I moved closer to Faith and looked her straight in the eyes. "I need to tell you something, will you stay and listen?" I said it in a tone that was a mixture of plea and desperation.

I could see in Faith's eyes the hesitation and that she was almost ready to leave.

"Please stay and listen and then you can leave and I will never bother you again." It was my last desperate chance to try and save the situation. I could see the wavering in her eyes and she replied somewhat hesitantly, "Ok, I'll stay for now, but anything I don't like then I'm out of here."

"Please be patient as I have to explain a lot…" What I started to tell her was everything I had pieced together about the ORION project and the SPARTAN-II project. I had learned this information over the years from Adriana and accessing my own "unofficial" sources (hacking ONI databases).

* * *

Faith was still angry, but now she was feeling confused and she couldn't understand what she was feeling. She wanted to just turn and get the hell out of the room and leave Sunnydale and put all this crap behind her, but for some reason she wanted to stay... She _needed_ to stay. Michael wasn't threatening her... It was quite the opposite... She heard the emotion in Michael's voice as he talked to her and asked her to stay and listen to him.

When she had first entered Michael's room, she had been so angry that she hadn't looked at Michael. Now she was looking at him... really looking at him. He was out of his armor suit and he was this huge imposing man and she could see how well built and strong he looked (even for an older guy). A part of Faith shivered and she couldn't figure where that had come from. Some people would have been intimidated by Michael's size and the dangerous vibe he gave off (Faith shivered again), but she wasn't threatened or scared... She felt... _safe_. It was a strange feeling that she couldn't remember having before... She also felt something else, but she couldn't place the feeling immediately.

What struck Faith was Michael's eyes... He had this scar running down his face which stuck out, but it was his eyes that seemed to call to her. Faith recognized that there was pain and sorrow in there, but she also saw a strength and determination in there that she hadn't seen in anyone else... the only person that would have come close was Buffy. Faith looked into Michael's brown eyes and she thought she saw a reflection of herself in there... She saw something else in there that she had never seen in anyone else's eyes before...

* * *

I started by explaining that as humanity in my universe moved out among the stars and colonized planets that they still carried the same old baggage… hate, greed, the whole long laundry list of bad traits. The UNSC decided that enhanced soldiers were needed to carry out special operations to keep in check/take out secessionists, pirates and terrorists among the colony worlds. I could see that Faith was mildly interested, but she was still listening.

I continued on. "The first 2 times they tried creating a "super-soldier" they used existing soldiers and tried to enhance them using drugs and other treatments. They weren't as successful as they hoped. Eventually a brilliant doctor named Catherine Halsey came along and she was put in charge of the Spartan-II project. She took a very different approach to who would be recruited for the project…"

"They used a cover story of vaccinating all the children among all the colony worlds to take genetic samples for testing…" I paused and then continued.

"I was 6 years old when ONI agents took me away in the night from my family…" The way I said the statement was so plain and matter of fact that it took a moment for Faith to register what I had said.

"Are you saving that you were kidnapped when you were 6 for this project? What did your family do? They must have looked for you?" Faith said with a look of horror and fear as she started to understand what had happened to me.

"The project had covered that contingency, when they took me, they left behind a flash clone… a copy of me, so that my family wouldn't notice I had been taken… The clone had been programmed to become sick with some untreatable genetic disease within a short time and then would die and my family would not know anything had happened to their actual child."

I could see Faith comprehending the scope and horror of what had been done to me… I continued on.

"I have no real memories of my parents… I have flashes in dreams, I sometimes remember my mother having long brown hair and that I would play and hide in it… I remember my father lifting me in the sky and making me laugh… My most vivid earliest memories are when I became conscious, after being taken, in a room with all the other chosen children and Dr. Halsey coming in… I still remember after all these years what she said…"

"_You have been called upon to serve, you will be trained... and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the protectors of Earth and all her colonies..._"

"…and explaining that we had been chosen… that we were all special and unique children and that we were to help defend the human race. She wasn't cruel about it and the training was hard and difficult. It was meant to push us to prepare us… She became a surrogate mother of sorts. It was just that the program was the priority and that our main purpose was to protect and defend humanity. We started our training and we spent the next 8 years training to prepare for the 2nd phase of the project."

"2nd phase?" was all that Faith could mutter.

"You don't think that I was born 7 feet tall and having all this strength and muscle do you?"

"I didn't even think about it..." Faith replied.

"When we turned 14, we all underwent biological augmentation procedures." Faith winced when I said that.

"We were given a combination of drugs and mechanical enhancements to our bodies to make us able to wear the battle armor that was being developed for us. There were 75 of us in the program… 42 of us either died or were crippled during the augmentation process."

"I know what it is like to be chosen… I have no last name… I am Michael-113… I am Spartan-113." I said meeting Faith's gaze. I could see her eyes get a different look to them... There was no anger in them anymore.

"This is who I am… I was never able to access any records of my family background and after the Covenant destroyed our training facility on Reach, the majority of personnel records related to the Spartan-II program were lost."

I paused for a moment to let Faith take in everything I had said.

I continued, "Our first missions were taking out human targets. I was younger than you when I had my first kill. Then the Covenant came. Nothing like a genocidal fanatical group of aliens to help you put in perspective why you were chosen and then you learn to accept who and what you are."

"I was chosen… because I was needed. The details don't seem to matter as much, It is important that I am here to protect and defend humanity… as it is important that you are here to be the Slayer…" I could see the tears form in her eyes. She stood up and started to walk away and then she turned, "But the pain and suffering… how do you go on?"

"I have seen and caused so much pain and suffering… I can see all their faces… But, I see the faces of those I have saved and protected. I have my mission to do. I have seen and done things you cannot comprehend." I moved closer towards Faith, relieved that she didn't move away.

"I have been to worlds you cannot imagine, before I came here and until this moment, I never really understood who or what I was." I paused, "I saw you in my dreams on another world in another universe. I am supposed to be here."

I was looking deep into Faith's eyes now and I could see her looking deep into me. I saw the same look in her eyes that I had seen many times in my dreams of her. "I'm here because, you need me… I'm here because I need you." I said still not completely understanding what I was currently feeling.

I reached out to touch her face… My hand was shaking a bit… I never had the shakes before. "I have never said or done anything like this…"

"Never?" was all Faith could say.

I smiled and my hand touched her face and I bent down (or did she move up) and I kissed her… we kissed each other. I had never felt anything like it in my life…

Faith was having a similar feeling, she had her share of sexual encounters and messing around, but this kiss from this man was unlike anything she had ever experienced. It was a kiss that felt of love and passion of someone that would always be there for her… they moved closer with bodies touching and kissing with a tender passion that few get to truly experience…

* * *

They were later holding each other in his… their bed. Faith was amazed at the tenderness, passion… the love one could experience while having sex… "Love-making" she corrected herself.

She was more experienced than Michael in sexual encounters, but the way he touched her body made her feel alive and reborn. All her previous sexual encounters paled in comparison to what she had just experienced. She normally used sex as an outlet and then just moved on… this was something else and new and she loved it and she was slowly realizing that she loved this Spartan. He was someone that for all his strength and the violence that he came from would never hurt her or leave her. They were each finding a small measure of peace with each other from the harsh realities of the world.

She was looking at the patch work of scars on Michael's huge arms and biceps… "So much pain and suffering" she said quietly.

I answered back, "Life is to be lived… I didn't choose to be a Spartan, but it is what was required and if I hadn't become a Spartan, I wouldn't be right here with you… right now. I think I can live with that trade-off."

* * *

It was late and everyone had headed off to their rooms to sleep, to have some precious privacy. Faith quietly stalked through the warehouse to get to the kitchen area. The lighting in the common areas had automatically dimmed to low light for nighttime. Faith wanted to get something to drink and a snack… She always got the munchies after sex and she had a big case of the munchies after what she just experienced. She was still trying to catch her breath and walk straight. She was glad it was dark and she didn't want to wake anyone as she didn't want to explain her behavior let alone that all she was wearing was one of Michael's huge shirts that draped her like a circus tent, but she didn't feel like any clown. She felt absolutely wonderful and happy… the happiest she had ever felt in a long time… damn she was feeling almost giddy…

She was grabbing the carton of juice from the fridge…

"Feeling thirsty… huh?" a familiar voice said from the dark behind her.

"I'm feeling 5 by 5, B" Faith replied without batting an eye.

"Don't you think he's a little old for you?" was Buffy's reply.

"_Here we go_" thought Faith. She could feel the old prejudices and judgments starting up again whenever she was around Buffy and the Scoobies. "_To hell with them… I'm happy._" thought Faith and the anger passed quickly.

"He's still younger than Angel… (scored a point there as Buffy winced) and you know what I don't care what anyone thinks and he doesn't either… I have found someone for the first time that makes me happy and doesn't want much from me… He understands me and respects me… the first time a guy has ever done that… Plus… the sex was mind blowing." Faith could see Buffy's eyes widen at that last statement. Faith was always able to shock Buffy in some way as for all of Buffy's life and experience as a Slayer, she was still a girl who had a vanilla middle class upbringing.

"I'm happy for you Faith… you look happy." Buffy's matter of fact statement caught Faith off guard. All Faith could say was "Thanks." She started back towards Michael's room, Buffy said, "Just remember to stay focused… we cannot afford to be distracted now…"

That last statement brought back the reality of the situation everyone was facing dealing with The First and the Ubervamps. It weighed on Faith's thoughts as she went back to Michael's room and crawled back in bed with him as he lay asleep. It took her a while to finally doze off, but her final thoughts were what Michael had said to her "_I'm here because, you need me… I'm here because I need you._" Who would have thought that someone so strong and powerful would ever need her as sleep reached out to her.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The morning sunrise was beaming in through the skylight in the bedroom and Faith could feel that the weight had shifted in the bed and her first thought was "_Was it all a dream?_" As she rolled over and took note that Michael was no longer in bed, she looked across the room and saw Michael up and doing some exercises. She watched him go through slow motion movements… It looked like a combination of martial arts and tai chi; she was enthralled watching him… It didn't hurt the view that he was stripped down to shorts and watching this huge powerful man gracefully go through those movements stirred her. She was almost tempted to interrupt and ask Michael to come back to bed when he interrupted her X-rated thoughts, "Why don't you get up and join me, these movements are good for getting the circulation moving and are also based on some of the hand to hand combat techniques taught to Spartans and other UNSC special forces… wouldn't hurt to learn some new moves?"

"I'm not a morning person and the only moves I'm thinking of right now will only work in bed…" was Faith's reply. Michael blushed… "_Damn I actually made this walking demigod blush… who would've thought it possible_" Faith thought.

I had turned towards Faith and was actually contemplating Faith's offer when a female voice interrupted them over the warehouse intercom system… "Ahem… If the two of you could put your hormones in check for a while… we do have lots of work and training to prepare for… you know protect the world from ending and so on."

"Thanks Adriana… without you I would have completely forgot that the world was at an end" was my sarcastic response.

"How and why do you put up with that?" was Faith's question as she shook her head at the exchange between the AI and Spartan.

"We have been through a lot together over the years… She is my best friend and she has saved my ass on several occasions."

"And such a pretty ass it is" Faith leered at him. "You guys argue like an old married couple."

"Maybe we do, but as in most cases, Adriana is right and we have a lot of work and training to do, but…"

"But, what?" was Faith's puzzled reply.

"…right now I think we can allocate some time for some, one on one, hand to hand combat training." As I turned back and headed back towards Faith on the bed with a smile on his face…

"I think I can get on board with this training" Faith replied back with a smile of her own…

* * *

"…So Faith and Iron Man are knocking boots… riding the big wave… taking a pleasure cruise…"

"Knock it off Xander!" was Buffy's reply cutting off Xander's further commentary of the change in the household situation.

Willow had a shocked look on her face, "Are you saying that Faith and Michael did the nasty?"

Xander always enjoyed seeing Willow looking shocked, it was a reminder of more innocent times. He took it as an opening to continue… "It wasn't just the nasty it was some super freaky nasty!"

"Enough... please." came the always seemingly composed English accent from the other side of the table. "Can we have a quiet breakfast without engaging in idle speculation of the carnal activities of other people who are not here?"

"But, Giles it is tradition… Nay... I say an obligation to gossip about what is going on behind closed doors and what is going on behind those doors and with who.." as Xander continued playing the situation.

"Whom…" Willow interrupted.

"What?" Xander said staring at Willow.

"You meant to say "behind those doors and with whom" as Willow corrected Xander.

"Whatever…" was Xander's lack of concern with proper English grammar usage.

"Either way it isn't any of our business what Faith and Michael do behind closed doors" interjected Buffy. "I have never seen Faith so happy as long as I have known her, so we should just be happy for them…" Buffy paused with an evil twinkle in her eye "…plus she said the sex was mind blowing."

Both Giles and Xander choked in shock and Willow had a shocked look mixed with a female contemplative look mixed in...

* * *

Buffy, Xander, Anya, Willow and a large group of potentials were in the exercise and training rooms. Buffy had selected one of the potentials named Kennedy to lead the rest of the potentials through some exercises and some self-defense training moves. Buffy was going through some of her own Slayer training, while Willow watched. Anya watched Xander as he was doing a light weight workout.

Anya asked, "Xander, why aren't you using that weight set over in that other corner?"

"Are you kidding me? Those weights start out at 500lbs and go up to 2000lbs…" Xander replied as he put down his weights. "Those are more like a Buffy-Slayer-type weight set."

As the conversations and workouts continued, Faith came into the training area. Everybody couldn't help but notice the smile she had on her face. Everyone had been discussing and gossiping about Faith and the Spartan hooking up. But the tone of the conversation and gossip changed as Michael entered the training area.

This was the first time that anyone (other than Faith) had seen Michael completely out of his armor. Everyone there couldn't help but stare as this 7 foot tall massively built walking mountain of a man came into the training area wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt.

"Yowzers!" was all that Anya could say as she saw the massively built Spartan walk in.

"Thanks a lot for the vote of confidence and for my self-esteem." Xander replied sarcastically.

"Huh… did you say something? Oh Xander… you have nothing to worry about. I am sure Michael is probably just like any person… any other god-like person you would expect out of Greek mythology…" Anya said staring in a day-dreaming state.

"Great…" was all Xander said as he rolled his eyes.

Everyone watched as Faith and Michael started doing some stretching exercises together.

"I'm sure that he is not that flexible…" Willow said going over to join Anya and Xander with the staring and conversation.

They watched as Willow was proved wrong.

"Uhhh… Willow… For someone that has a thing for women, you may want to wipe that drool from the corner of your mouth." Xander commented.

Willow blushing quite profusely quickly wiped her mouth with her sleeve with no comment.

Everyone watched as Michael went over to the heavy weight set and setup the bench weights for 900lbs. Faith made her way over to Buffy on the training mats.

"He is sure a nice piece of eye candy… Wouldn't you say so B?" Faith teased Buffy.

"Looks aren't everything…" Buffy retorted.

"Yea… but it helps…" Faith replied smiling.

Buffy watched as Michael easily lifted the 900lbs for a quick set and increased the weight to 1500lbs.

"Now he's just showing off…" Buffy said.

"Maybe… but that is damn impressive… Oh B… you have a little bit of drool in the corner there… you might want to wipe that..." Faith replied with a teasing smile.

* * *

"So has everyone missed me while I was gone?"

Spike had been gone for the last week following up on some leads regarding The First and the Turok-Hans.

"Hello Spike…" was all that Giles could mutter out. Spike may have a soul now, thought Giles, but he is still a pain in the ass.

"Anything exciting that I missed? …What did the big bad robot do? Did he rust away yet?" as Spike continued on.

"Well in fact there have been some major developments that may be too complex for you to understand" as Xander took this opportunity to get some verbal shots in at Spike. "But, don't let that stop you from putting your foot in your mouth."

"Sod off mouth breather…" was Spike's retort.

He continued on, "So what is the latest with robo-soldier?"

"The latest is that robo-soldier is more human than first thought…" came a voice from behind Spike.

"What does that mean? Buffy?"

"It means that the robot is in fact a man inside an armor suit…"

"I knew it… I knew something wasn't as it seemed with the giant tin can… probably some milquetoast type of man… hiding inside a bloody tin can…probably runs from his own shadow without his metal suit…"

Buffy just smiled as Spike continued digging his own hole… "Ummm… Spike, I think I should properly introduce you to Michael..."

"Okay where is the tin man? Holy sh…" as Spike turned around and found himself staring into the chest of the biggest man he had ever seen…

"Hello Spike… nice to see you again." Michael greeted with Spike with a smile.

Buffy and Xander were having a hard time keeping their giggles in check and even Giles was having difficulty keeping his ever continuous British composure in check seeing Spike's evident discomfort.

Spike replied… "Well my… aren't we a big boy, now aren't we?"

"He's no boy… He's all man…" came a reply from Faith that Spike just noticed next to this huge mountain of a man.

That left Spike dumb founded even more… "You mean you and this man-mountain have?"

"You betcha… I have climbed this mountain and planted my flag or was it the other way around…" as Faith continued keeping Spike off balance.

Buffy and Xander were now almost with tears in their eyes…

"Okay everyone… enough playtime… we must set an example for the others." As Giles tried to get the situation under control.

"Agreed" said a smiling Michael. "Time to get back to the business at hand…"

"Killjoy" muttered a joking Faith.

* * *

Later that day, Faith heard Adriana's voice over the warehouse's intercom system, "Faith… Please report to the conference room."

Faith heard the call and went to the conference room. She entered and as she closed the door behind her, she found that she was the only one in the room.

"What's up Adriana?" asked Faith.

"We need to talk." came the reply from the AI.

Faith was taken aback by the tone of the AI's voice. Michael had explained about Adriana, so she had an understanding of how advanced the AI was and what "she" was capable of, but she was still amazed by how personable and "human" sounding she could be.

"Okay." replied a hesitant sounding Faith.

"I want to talk about Michael and your relationship with him." Adriana spoke.

"_Direct and straight to the point._" thought Faith.

"What do you want to know about us?" Faith replied to the AI with a little unease and hesitation as she didn't know where this conversation was headed.

"I have known and been with Michael for four years, 265 days, 16 hours and 52 minutes. We have been through many combat situations and encounters during this time period. I have grown attached to Michael and developed a fondness for him. I want to speak to you as I want to make sure that Michael is not hurt in this relationship with you."

Adriana continued, "Michael told you how he was "recruited" for the Spartan program. He has received some of the best training education and equipment that the UNSC could provide. There is not a combat or tactical situation that Michael could not deal with, but his experience with emotional relationships has been quite basic and limited. I want you to understand that in terms of human relationships and sexuality that Michael is very inexperienced."

Faith took a moment to gather her thoughts and digest what Adriana had just said. Faith gave a lot of thought to what her feelings were towards Michael. This was more than a one night stand or just messing around. Faith found the words coming out of her mouth very surprising, "Adriana… I love Michael with all my heart. I have never known a man like him. I would never hurt him as I know that he would never hurt me."

There was a pause and what Faith had said sunk in, "_I'm actually in love... I love Michael..._" Faith thought and the more she thought about it the more she knew that she was certain about her feelings towards Michael and a smile grew on Faith's face as she thought about it.

Adriana broke the silence of the moment, "Faith… From my understanding of human relationships and seeing how you and Michael interact with each other. I believe you love him. I just want you to understand who and what Michael is… He is a Spartan. Michael has told you about the program, but do you know what that actually means?"

"What is it that you are trying to tell me?" asked Faith unsure where Adriana was headed.

"All I am trying to say is that you love Michael and he loves you, but he is first and foremost what the UNSC selected and designed him to be…" Adriana spoke.

"And what is that?" asked Faith.

"A weapon…" was the AI's reply

* * *

Later that evening Faith was waiting for Michael to return to their now shared quarters from his perimeter check. She was still trying to digest what Adriana had told her and continue to sort out her feelings for Michael. Faith had been burned too many times before by people she thought she loved and she was actually afraid of her feelings towards Michael. She just didn't want get hurt again, but she knew how she felt and she knew (or at least she thought she knew) how Michael felt about her. She was deep in thought when a familiar voice from her past startled her.

"A penny for your thoughts?"

Faith turned quickly and was looking at the form of Mayor Wilkins. It took her a moment to realize who and what it actually was. "I was wondering when you would show up again." Faith directed to The First that was in the image of the long dead mayor that she had once worked for.

"Well aren't you a firecracker… All grown up and fighting on the good guy's side… You know you don't belong here… They don't trust you for everything you have done." spoke The First.

"I've changed and you aren't him…" Faith replied.

"That's true… I've been dead for several years now, but my spirit lives on." the image of Mayor Wilkins said with a smile.

The First continued, "You think this Spartan will protect you and that it even loves you… You are just fooling yourself… He will use you and then dump you to the side… He will…"

"Why don't you stop bothering the young lady and go away." came a voice from behind interrupting The First.

"Well here comes the hero… to save the day." said The First.

"It must bother you that I can sneak up on you and you can't sense me?" I said entering the room further.

The image of Mayor Wilkins shrugged and said, "Well pretty soon you won't be able to feel anything anymore… I will…"

"Yap… Yap… Yap… That's all I hear from you. I have faced meaner and scarier things than you in my universe. I find you to be quite quaint and boring…" I retorted. The First started to speak again, I held up my hand.

"You know it is late and I want to spend some time with Faith alone and get some rest and you should just leave… now." I said with emphasis on the leaving now point.

The First appeared somewhat taken aback by how it was being spoken to, "You will learn to fear me… You cannot understand the power that I have."

"Well I look forward to that time when we face each other again... Maybe you will be more real, so I can rip you in half when we meet, but until then buzz off…" I dismissed The First with a wave of my hand.

The image of the Mayor disappeared and Faith and I were alone in our quarters.

"Do you think it was wise to piss off The First?" Faith asked.

"I tend to have that effect on some people or so I'm told…" I replied shrugging my shoulders

I asked "What image was The First appearing to you?"

"He was in the form of Mayor Wilkins… He was someone I worked for when I was in a really dark place. I did some work for him that I'm not too proud of. Why do you ask?" Faith replied.

"I only see The First in what I can only assume is its true form… It's a pretty ugly sight." I said.

"Doesn't it bother you or worry you?" asked Faith.

"I only worry about those things I can control. In combat there is so much uncertainty that you have to learn to adapt and overcome that uncertainty. Plus like I said, I have seen much scarier and meaner things." I said with a smile.

Faith let out a shudder at that thought. I came closer and wrapped my arms around Faith to hold her.

I looked into her eyes and said, "The First is just playing mind games with you to undermine your resolve and determination… I love you and will always love you. That I am sure of with no doubts or hesitation."

Faith cast aside any reservations and doubts that had been created by both Adriana and The First.

"As long as you are sure…" she said with a mischievous smile.

* * *

Later on when Faith and Michael were holding each other in bed, Faith was holding her hand up to Michael's hand. She was amazed at how hands that were so big and powerful could touch so gently."Where are we going with this?" Faith asked suddenly.

"Going where with what?" was my somewhat confused reply.

"Us… Where is this relationship going? It's not like we are your typical normal couple… I don't see us ending up in a house with a white picket fence… You a super enhanced soldier from a future alternate universe and me a Slayer…" Faith said as she sat up and turned and looked at me.

"Faith to be honest I don't know. This is all new to me." I said with plain honesty.

I continued, "All I have ever known is the military and war, so this relationship thing is confusing to me at times. I do know that I am happy when I'm with you. I want to enjoy every moment with you…"

"What about The First and the Hellmouth?" asked Faith.

"We'll deal with The First and anything else that comes out of there and when that is done I think we deserve some downtime and we should travel and see the world… There's so much to see and we could see it together…" I spoke with hope for the future.

"You want to sightsee?" Faith said with some incredibility.

"You would be surprised. I have traveled most of the galaxy, but I never visited Earth. I was born on a colony world that I don't even remember the name of. I spent a lot of time on a planet called Reach. It was located 10.5 light years from here in the Epsilon Eridani System."

"Was?" Faith asked.

"Reach was a major UNSC military base and also had a large civilian population. Reach was the second most important planet in the UNSC next only to Earth… The Covenant found Reach and they glassed… destroyed the whole planet… It was sort of the only home I ever really knew." Michael was looking past Faith to another place and another time.

"I'm sorry" Faith said as she hugged me.

"It sounds like things weren't going well for the human race…" Faith asked.

"We've been at war for such a long time… over 20 billion people dead. We could win some battles and score some victories, but yeah we were losing the war… I've lost count of how many worlds the Covenant have glassed. We measured victories when we were able to evacuate people off planet before the Covenant killed them, but we couldn't stop them..." Michael spoke with a haunted look in his face now.

Faith had a hard time comprehending the universe where Michael came from and what he had faced.

Michael continued, "We could kill them by the hundreds… by the thousands, but they still kept coming… The most frightening thing was that for how terrible the war with the Covenant was. There was something even worse out there…"

"Sounds like it was bad enough… How could it be worse?" Faith asked with some skepticism.

"I never encountered them, but one of my brother Spartans found and fought something that makes all your demons, vampires and Hellmouth pale by comparison… It's called the Flood."

Faith saw that Michael was feeling guilty for abandoning his universe and not being there to help uphold his mission to defend the human race. She reached out and touched his face. Michael shook off where his thoughts had taken him and he looked at Faith and smiled wistfully.

"I should be back in my universe… They need me there…" I said.

Faith shook her head, "From what you told me of how you got here, you didn't have much of a choice. If you weren't here you would probably be dead… Plus we need you here… I need you here…"

Faith wanted to get off this somber topic, "You know you are right… Once we finish up here and kick The First's ass up and down Sunnydale, we should take a vacation… Maybe find a beach somewhere and kick back and relax… Maybe we can make it a private secluded beach, so nobody can bother us and we can watch the sunrise and the sunset each day."

"I would like that…" Michael said with a smile warming up to the change in topic.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"Since we cannot make 26th century weapons to give us an advantage in battle, Adriana and I have looked at what current weapons could be used and measured their effectiveness… We found from field tests that a magazine mix of AP, HE and incendiary ammo was very effective in dusting vampires…We… uh yes… you have a question?" as Michael was interrupted from his briefing by one of the potentials raising her hand with a puzzled look.

"What is AP?" asked the extremely confused looking potential.

"_Sigh_" I thought… "_God, just give me one full Spartan team… an ODST team or even a full marine fire team… and we would dust every last Ubervamp… They are hard to kill and are strong and dangerous, but you didn't have to worry about plasma grenades, wraiths, phantoms or the planet being turned to glass from space._"

"AP stands for Armor Piercing…" Still seeing more puzzled looks another inner sigh followed.

"That means that the bullet can go through metal…"

Later on after the briefing, Buffy, Giles and Faith came up to Michael. They could see the look of frustration in his face. They voiced their concerns. Giles spoke first, "Michael, we understand everything that you are trying to do, but you must you remember that these are only girls and not professional soldiers. You can only go so far and so fast with these girls."

Buffy added, "Giles is right, we have to prepare, but is giving guns to these girls the answer?"

I looked at both Giles and Buffy and then looked at Faith, "You agree with them too?"

Faith was torn, she didn't want to go against Michael, but she knew deep down both Giles and Buffy had valid points. She nodded and said, "The G-man and B are both making some good points and giving machine guns to some of these girls could be bad mistake."

I took a moment to compose myself and ready my answer. It was taking some use to being questioned, back in my home universe, Spartans were never questioned over the advice and orders that they gave. It wasn't ego, it was a fact that Spartans were the best and had the most experience dealing with combat and battle tactics. So it was a bit of a change having to explain what I was doing and why.

"The enemy will come at you in waves…" I began. "They will use their numbers to overwhelm and kill you… Unless you can channel the enemy into killing zones, bring superior firepower to bear and start killing them from range, they… all the potentials and you will all die and you will lose…the human race will lose."

"I have been fighting for years… decades against beings whose only goal… a fanatical goal… is the complete extermination of the human race… I know that given a choice between facing a Covenant battle group or a horde of Ubervamps that I would choose these Ubervamps as my odds of surviving are much better…"

I paused for a moment and continued on, "I don't expect these girls to be Spartans or even full-fledged marines, but they are the first line of defense whether they like it or not…"

The other three couldn't provide a response, then Giles spoke, "I can appreciate your experience and knowledge, but can't you just adjust your training methods for these young women?"

I replied, "The training is to help these "potentials" stay alive in combat and kill the enemy. I will try to take into account the situation, but I will not compromise on the training as that will jeopardize the mission." "We will focus training on those skills that we are the most important and can utilize to increase our odds of survival and success."

Later on behind closed doors in their quarters, Faith talked to Michael, "Aren't you asking too much of them and yourself?"

"You know the facts, this is a battle for survival for the species… there are no second place awards."

"Yes, I know…" Faith responded, "But you can at least try to be a little more human when dealing with these kids… They are hunted and scared about the big bad that is coming from below to devour them."

"It's hard Faith… I'm not use to this… I'll try if you'll help me."

"I'll always be there for you…" was what Faith said as she leaned in to kiss the Spartan.

* * *

Michael was wandering the warehouse after lights out, he had left Faith asleep in their bed. He had a lot to think about and it was hard to wrap his mind about what was needed. He had to admit that everyone was right and he had to make that leap to be able to relate to these girls in order to train them to fight and survive… He walked through the quiet and dark warehouse… a Spartan alone in his thoughts.

* * *

In the morning, Michael gathered everyone together in the common area. He walked to the front of the group, Michael was always a little uncomfortable speaking to large groups, but he looked to Faith first and she smiled and winked at him. Michael couldn't help himself from smiling…

"Before we go any farther, I want all of you to understand who and what I am and where I come from. You all know that I come from an alternate future universe… I was designed for combat and I have been fighting for over 20 years. Most of our colony planets are gone and we have lost over 20 billion people… Yes that's 20 billion with a capital B…My human race has been fighting and losing against an enemy that wants nothing less than our total extermination..."

Michael's voice took on a harder tone, "Do not doubt, for one second, my resolve and determination. I will stop at nothing to protect the human race, whether it is in my universe or this one."

Michael paused for a moment to let what he said sink in and then he continued.

"We are going to discuss our training plan and tactics we are going to use to fight and kill the Turok-Hans and anything else that comes out of the Hellmouth." Michael paused. "I know some of you have expressed reservations over my training methods, so we are going to use this time to discuss and come to an agreement over what needs to be done. Whatever we agree upon, after today there will be no second guessing each other… Is that understood?"

Michael could see everyone nodding or mumbling their understanding.

"Everyone here brings a different level and scope of knowledge to what we will be facing, so it is key that we work together as a team…"

"Training will be broken down into several areas. Individual training… working on building up strength and endurance… Group training… all of you will be split off to work in teams. Your teams will learn to work by themselves and with other teams to achieve objectives."

He could see the questioning and puzzling looks… that was good at least there appeared to be no dissent to the plan. Michael continued.

"There will be a lot of hands-on training that will push your limits, but as with all training there will be also classroom training to learn… knowing is half the battle."

At the mention of classroom training a lot of the potentials groaned and Michael could see that Faith and Buffy weren't too thrilled with that aspect of training.

"Everyone will take part in training and everyone will contribute… There will be no exceptions."

"I will now open up the floor to discussions… any questions or comments?"

Hands went up as the discussions began.

Later on Michael met with what was now going to be the command staff for their force. Michael had insisted upon having a command structure to provide for ease of communication and training. Michael had selected Buffy, Faith, Giles, Xander, Willow, Spike, Dawn, Anya and of course Adriana to be on staff. He had been watching all of them for years and he knew what each of them brought to the table.

Everyone gathered in the room that had been set up to hold meetings and conferences, they all took their seats and Michael moved to the front of the room to speak.

"I have been thinking about force structure and my recommendation is to form five fire teams made up of the potentials… I would like Buffy, Faith, Giles, Spike and Xander to be the team leaders. Each of you has leadership and combat experience. As the potentials are assigned to each of your teams, you will be responsible for picking a second in command and developing your teams to work together. I know some of you are used to fighting by yourselves, but as I have talked about before, we need to fight as a team rather than individuals."

"For Willow, Dawn and Anya, your tasks are to provide support and work with Adriana in our command center. This is not to say anything about your fighting skills, but that each of you have important skills and that the support you will provide working with Adriana will be invaluable to the fire teams. Those potentials that are not capable to making the grade on the fire teams will be assigned to you in the command center. All of you will still be required to learn all the same combat and fighting techniques as the command center will constitute our reserve and support force in the coming battle."

Michael could see the nods of understanding plus worried looks of self-doubt as was always the case when talking about combat and war. Michael had seen those same looks hundreds of times before on marines who were barely out of their teens and facing combat for the first time. The only ones that didn't have that look were Buffy, Faith, Giles and Spike. They had all faced combat before and they understood what was being asked and required.

Michael added, "I have confidence in all of you to do the training and perform the tasks that will be required of you… You are not rookies as you have all fought before and have prevailed."

With that Michael could see that he had their acceptance and confidence on what was needed to be done.

"Let's talk about the training program… we need to start with basic physical fitness and then move to combat techniques… We'll start with hand to hand combat and then move to weapons…"

The meeting lasted several hours until dinner…


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The training program for the potentials and everyone else was a hard paced schedule. Michael was a task master on the training, but everyone knew what was at stake. Everyone was tired and sore at the end of each day, but nothing motivates people more for hard work than self-preservation.

The training regimen focused on individual skills and for the newly formed "fire-teams" to work together within their teams and to function with the other teams.

Michael oversaw that everyone was provided weapons training in handguns, assault weapons and crew-served support weapons. Michael had decided upon using the 7.62mm Gatling Minigun as the heavy support weapon as it could provide the required heavy volume of firepower. Each fire team would have one Minigun assigned and they would use it as there base of fire against the Bringers and Ubervampires. Michael had been torn over which assault rifle he would issue to the teams. He had stockpiled, over the years, both AR-15's and AK-47's. Each had its merits for use, but in the end he settled on the AR-15 to issue to everyone. Adriana and Michael had made sure that more than enough ammo had been stockpiled over the years of preparation.

Michael had decided against letting the potentials and others use grenades, grenade launchers and rocket launchers and did not provide any training on them. The skills and training for using them would take longer and Michael (along with everyone else) felt that they were living on borrowed time. Michael would be the one to use any grenades, plus Michael had planned a surprise for The First and its followers that would compensate for the lack of any grenades or rockets for the teams. One item that Michael made sure was in the training program was that all the teams knew how to place and use claymore mines. Those would be most important in helping the fire teams to defend their positions.

Along with the weapons training, everyone learned basic map reading, combat tactics, use of communication gear as Adriana and Michael had made sure that everyone would be equipped with a com headset. There was training in first aid, basic knife fighting and hand to hand combat skills.

Michael made sure that everyone had some form of body armor. When asked by a potential why they had to wear and train wearing this extra weight and knowing that the Bringers and Turok-Hans weren't going to be carrying guns, Michael's response was, "Even though our enemy won't be using any firearms. In the event that you do end up in close combat, that armor may absorb blows from them giving you time to kill them. Everything we are doing is to help keep you alive and to kill our enemy!"

At the end of each day after dinner, Michael and the rest of the command staff would meet to discuss the strategy to be used in defeating their enemy.

Giles was speaking to the "command staff", "We know that the Bringers and Ubervamps will not act like a conventional military force. They will act more like a force of nature… much like how a raging river flows."

"More like a flood…" murmured Xander under his breath.

Michael had heard what Xander had said and thought, "_If they only knew how lucky they did not have to face anything like the Flood…_"

"So how do we stop this raging river of horror?" Buffy asked.

"We build a dam and force them to flow towards us and then we kill them all." Michael said.

"Easier said than done." Buffy replied back with a good dose of skepticism.

"Adriana, can you bring up the map of Sunnydale on the screen?" asked Michael.

"Yes Michael." responded the AI.

Michael walked over to the wall where Adriana had projected an aerial view map of Sunnydale.

"Our advantage is that we know where our enemy will come from. We use that knowledge for planning our defenses… Our first concern is that we want to control where the Ubervamps and Bringers go… From the basement of the high school they can spread out and access all parts of Sunnydale." Michael outlined on the map.

Michael continued, "We will plant demolition charges in the sewer access tunnels and at other points in the high school. When the attack comes, we will set them off and block access to those areas with rubble. This will force the enemy to use the only way we let them use…"

"…which is?" asked Xander.

"We force them out the front door…" replied Michael.

* * *

Xander spoke, "So let me understand what you are saying… We have these hordes of creatures raging from the Hellmouth and we set off explosives to block every exit except for the front door and then they come out the front door of the school…"

"That's correct." Michael replied.

"Then what?" asked Xander

Michael looked at the group and gave a smile. It was the kind of anticipating smile that you would see on a predator just before it struck its victim. It sent a chill through everyone in the room. Michael then outlined the surprise he would have in place to greet the enemy. After Michael explained his "surprise" everyone else in the room had the same smile.

"So what happens after that? You don't expect your plan to stop The First's followers there do you?" Buffy asked.

"No, this is only the beginning. To thin out the ranks of the enemy." replied Michael.

Michael continued, "This is to buy us time for everyone to get into position…"

"Then what?" asked Faith

"Then we make every vampire, demon and follower of The First sorry that they ever set foot in Sunnydale…" Michael replied again with a smile.

* * *

After the meeting and everyone had headed off to their rooms for much needed and deserved rest, Faith and Michael were spending some quality time in their room…

After they had finished they were lying together, Faith was the first to break the silence.

"It just gets better… doesn't it?" Faith said.

"It's a good thing that I'm an enhanced super soldier… I don't think I could keep up with you…Owww!" I said as Faith gave me an elbow shot to the ribs.

"Michael… I need to ask you something and I want you to be honest with me?" Faith said in a more serious tone.

"I'm always honest with you…" I replied.

"Okay Mr. Robot… But seriously, can we actually defeat The First and win?"

"It depends what you mean by winning? There is so much uncertainty in battle. If we survive I guess you can call that winning, but victory over The First Evil? I can't even guarantee that."

I looked into Faith's eyes, "I'll make you a promise… I promise that even if we do lose that I will make sure that The First won't win..."

"You sure know what to say to charm a girl… Don't ya?" as Faith smiled and moved on top to get astride of me.

* * *

Again much later, Faith was still awake and looking at Michael with his eyes closed. She was looking at the outline of his face. She reached out to almost touch the scar that ran down the left side of his face…

"You should really get some sleep…" I said startling Faith.

"Sorry, but I have always wondered about that scar…" Faith asked.

"Is it true what they say… Do chicks dig scars?" I said with a slight laugh.

"Oh yes… it is the only thing that attracts me to you…" Faith replied sarcastically with her own laugh.

"I got it during the battle of New Constantinople, I was a part of a heavy task force that had been sent in to help relieve the planet from a Covenant invasion. I was assigned with a Marine fire team and we were to take a transport down to the planet and provide support to the ground forces there. If we couldn't drive off the Covenant forces, we were to provide cover for the evacuation of as many civilians we could get off the planet."

I continued, "I had worked with this particular Marine fire team before. I knew them all… There was Gunnery Sargent Schmidt… He was a lifer in the Corps… For some reason he had a fascination for 20th Century Rock and Roll… especially a guy called Jimi Hendrix…"

I saw Faith smile as I talked…

"For some reason he had to play this Jimi Hendrix guy on every drop… What was that song? Oh yeah… It was called "All Along The WatchTower". So here we are loaded up to drop on this planet and we're in our Pelican… That's what our dropships are called… There's this music blaring… Everyone is quiet and caught up in their thoughts as you got to remember we are dropping into battle and I can see Gunny Schmidt just leaning back and tapping his foot to the music, with a peaceful look on his face…" I paused at recalling the memory.

"A couple of Covenant corvettes had engaged the task force and they let fly with their plasma batteries… Our Pelican got grazed by one of their blasts… If we had gotten hit straight on… well I wouldn't be here today… The graze was enough to rupture our hull… The rupture was right where the Gunny was sitting… He was just sucked into space… It happened so fast that the last thing I saw of him was that peaceful look on his face…"

Faith hugged me closer, "I'm so sorry…"

"The rest of the fire team and Pelican crew either died strapped in their seats or were sucked into space… I managed to hold on and I got out just as the Pelican broke up and exploded… The debris of the explosion hit my suit and helmet hard. I took some damage inside my helmet… It was the older Mark IV armor suits I wore back then…"

I paused again as I could see that Faith had been caught up in story.

"So what happened? How did you survive?" she asked impatiently.

"Patience… It's my story… Needless to say I survived… Owww." I said as Faith elbowed me in the ribs.

"Okay… Okay… Well there I am… My ride is gone… I'm floating in space… My suit and helmet have taken damage. I can't see out my left eye, but I can feel the blood on my face… From what I could see of my suit's systems, with my good eye, was that most of them were flashing yellow or red."

I continued, "Just when it was looking pretty bleak another Pelican on its approach to the planet swings by… I can see the pilot waving to me… He swings in close and gets underneath me and I grab a hold on top. Now I'm on top of the Pelican, they can't bring me inside… All I can do is lay down and hold on tight and ride the bird all the way down to the ground through the atmospheric reentry…"

"So let me get this straight… You rode down to the planet on the outside of the ship? You're bullshitting me aren't you?" Faith said with awe in her voice.

"No… that's the God's honest truth. The damage to my helmet wasn't too severe… The medics were able to patch my face up groundside and I didn't lose the eye…" I replied.

"So what happened with the planet?" Faith asked.

"If you expecting some sort of happy ending… I'm sorry to disappoint you. We did bloody the Covenant's nose badly during the campaign, but in the end the Covenant "glassed" the planet… We were only able to evacuate maybe about 10% of the civilian population…"

"I'm so sorry…" was all that Faith could say.

I looked at her and could see the sadness in her eyes as she could feel my pain. "We should be getting some sleep, it's late and we have a busy day in the morning as always…"

"Just one more thing?" Faith asked.

"I do need some rest…" I said with a smile.

"Not that…" She said with a smile. "I'm curious that if this "situation" occurred in your universe how you and your humans would deal with it?"

I took a moment to ponder my answer, "Well it would depend on the tactical and strategic situation… We would probably first send in ground troops and vehicles in to defend the area and use airstrikes and space based fire to support the ground forces…"

"What if your forces couldn't stop them? What would you do then?" Faith asked.

"We would nuke the site from space…" I replied.

"Nukes! Isn't that a little bit of an overreaction?" Faith said with some alarm.

"Use of nuclear weapons are considered acceptable use weapons in certain situations." I said matter of frankly.

"Well maybe it's a good thing we don't have any nukes in that arsenal of yours." Faith said as she turned over to go to sleep.

"Yeah… That's a good thing." I said trying to keep the hesitation and discomfort from my voice as I lied to her…

The training and waiting continued…


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

_It was time to unleash the horde of Turok-Hans upon the world. The First had waited long enough and if it waited any longer those opposing it would only get stronger. The First had its Bringers find the necessary blood sacrifice to open the great seal over the Hellmouth. The Slayers, that Spartan and all the rest would now feel its full fury…_

**_Sunnydale, California – May 23, 2003 – 1928 PST_**

Adriana's electronic senses picked up the first indications that the First and its minions were starting their final push… In the command center Adriana's hologram moved between the different terminals. They had used what resources they could gather over the years to establish a primitive sensor network (by 26th century standards) to monitor the Hellmouth. They used a combination of low-light, infrared, motion and video sensors/cameras to surround the high school and Hellmouth entrance. Luckily the AI could monitor 24 hours a day, so she was the first in the command center to detect and provide the warning.

"This is an alert condition… I have picked up seismic and motion disturbance around the Hellmouth. Repeat we have an alert condition…"

As Adriana's warning blared over the speakers in the warehouse, everyone scrambled. Everyone hurried to gather their equipment and group up with their assigned fire teams. They were nervous and scared, but there was no panic. This is where Michael's experience and training had paid off. Michael had drilled everyone for weeks. He had stressed that "…you can rush, you can hurry, you can even run, but never panic. When you panic that is when mistakes are made and lives are lost. Stay focused on the training and on what you need to do."

There still were some potentials that were just showing the first stages of panic, but again the training kicked in and the others helped those through the panic and to stay focused on their tasks at hand.

As everyone scrambled around in what seemed organized chaos, Michael already suited up in his battle armor sans helmet for the moment, gathered the leadership group. "Okay everyone… Looks like this is the real thing and the balloon is going up..."

Michael continued, "We'll gather all the teams and move to our assigned areas. The key is to get the support weapons setup first. I have given Adriana the go ahead to set off the demolition charges in the school as soon as she has detected major movement. The plan is to try and take out the first group gathering, block the sewer tunnels and collapse the building to slow the enemy down and buy us time to get into our assigned areas."

Michael looked at everyone gathered around him. "As planned, I am the designated fire brigade… I will be moving between fire teams to provide support where needed. Adriana will provide overall strategic direction and updates from the sensor network on the command channel."

Michael paused as he saw the questioning looks and the doubt that always come before combat… "You know your jobs and I know everyone is ready for this… Lead your people… keep the com channels open and stay frosty."

* * *

_The great seal over the Hellmouth opened… The hordes of vampires came up through the entry way in the ground. The Turok-Hans and the Bringers started to move from the basement of the high school towards the sewer access tunnels and towards Sunnydale and the world…_

_As the hordes started to spread out, The First looked on with satisfaction that there appeared to be nothing to stop his followers from the task of death and destruction… None of the creatures noticed the barrels placed at strategic points that had wire and cables and a box attached with a blinking red light…_

Adriana used her sensor network to watch the horde of vampires and Bringers gathering outside the Hellmouth. She waited until what she had calculated to be the most optimum time… she sent a command signal to the barrels placed all through the high school basement and access tunnels to the town's sewer system…

This was part of Michael's "surprise" for The First's followers. Twenty-five barrels filled with a mixture of gasoline, fertilizer, C4, ball-bearings and nails went off simultaneously… The huge explosions shredded both Bringers and vampires.

Adriana then sent another remote command to demolition charges that had been planted in the sewer tunnels at key junctions. Another round of explosions, this time controlled, collapsed all the sewer tunnels to prevent anyone and anything from using them to access the rest of Sunnydale.

The Turok-Hans and Bringers were like a force of nature, they flowed from the blocked choke points to the stairways to the ground level of the high school…

The battle plan was to deny access to the sewers and force the vampires and Bringers to the surface.

As the creatures accessed the main floor and spread out, Adriana sent another remote command and another set of demolition charges went out collapsing portions of the high school. The sealed portions of the high school forced the creatures to use the only available exit which was the main front door.

As the vampires and Bringers flowed out the main door, they were met with another wave of explosions from some more IED's that had been disguised as large flower planters placed outside the main entrance to meet the hordes. Michael had positioned these "planters" several weeks ago just for this purpose. The "planters" acted as giant claymore mines shredding anything and everything within their blast radius…

_The First was stunned… In all its eons of existence it had never encountered resistance and fighting like this… The First's vampires and Bringers still flowed out of the Hellmouth, but the initial enthusiasm had been tempered as they passed the shredded remains of Bringers and pieces of vampires that had been blown off and piles of dust from those vampires that had been killed…_

_The next wave of creatures came out of the Hellmouth to the surface and out the remains of the high school front door warily… They started to spread out and regain their courage… They did not take any notice of the five cargo vans that had been parked just outside the blast radius of the planter IED's…_

"Michael… Hostiles have entered Beta killzone." Adriana reported.

This had been Michael's "surprise" for the enemy. The IEDs had been setup in a layered minefield with 5 layers in total surrounding the high school and Hellmouth. Each layered zone had been given a designation and Adriana had control that she could set off the IED's individually, by zone or all simultaneously.

The battle plan had always been to slow down and thin out the initial waves of demons to allow the fire teams (and Michael) to get into their pre-planned defense positions. Michael had planned to have the vampires and their allies go through a hell of his own design and make them pay for every foot they took.

"Execute Beta." Michael responded to Adriana.

More huge explosions ripped through the ranks of vampires and Bringers… The area around the high school was turned into rubble and smoking ruins. The high school only had a few walls and portions of roof still intact. The floor had been blown open and you could see down to the basement and the opening of the Hellmouth…

The explosions and fires lit up the night. Knowing that the attack would come at night time and that the human forces would be at a disadvantage fighting in the dark, Michael had planned for Adriana to make sure that she had control of Sunnydale's power grid and to make sure that all the lights she could access were turned on.

As the fires raged, everyone heard the first sound of a mortar thumping, Michael had trained the base support group on how to load and fire a 120mm mortar from the warehouse roof. They weren't there to provide fire support as the training involved was extensive and Michael wanted to minimize any "blue on blue" friendly fire incidents. The mortars were just firing illumination rounds. This was to light up the night and reduce the enemy's advantage.

Fires raged and buildings around the school were turned to rubble. The roars of Turok-Hans echoed through the night. Add in the eerie light cast as parachute flares went off and this made the whole scene appear as someone's demented view of hell…

"My God!" was all that Xander could say as he watched the carnage unfold. Those sentiments were shared by everyone that watched the hell unleashed. The only one not transfixed by the scene was Michael. This was what he was made for… He studied the situation using his suit sensors and from data supplied by Adriana.

Michael used his battle suit optics to zoom in and get a more detailed view of the carnage he had inflicted on the enemy… He could see Turok-Hans moving around with arms missing and other ones flopping on the ground with their legs blown off… "_I just showed them a new level of hell…_" Michael thought with some satisfaction.

With all the data flowing on his helmet display, he kept an occasional eye on one particular reading on his sensor display. Faith would have probably kicked his ass if she knew. He had planted an IFF transponder in her armor, so that he could monitor her status and position.

Even with the losses and carnage unleashed, vampires still flowed out of the Hellmouth.

"Hostiles entering Gamma killzone…" the AI reported.

"Wait until those the front ranks enter Delta and then set off both Gamma and Delta…" responded Michael.

"Understood." replied Adriana.

Michael gambled that using two mine fields at one time would slow down the enemy enough to buy the fire teams more time to get dug into their defensive positions.

The IED's in the Gamma and Delta field went off with a huge roar, causing more carnage among the enemy…

* * *

Faith had never been in a fight like this before… She was beginning to understand what Michael had lived through in his universe.

Faith mumbled to herself, "We are so going to take that vacation… If we live through this."

She had gotten her fire team in their designated position. They were setting up in strip mall area with some residential housing nearby.

* * *

With the population of Sunnydale having left over the last few weeks, Michael had been able to lead the fire teams through some field exercises (during the day and night). This allowed the teams to scout out and become familiar with their defensive positions. They had even been able to assemble some barricades out of abandoned cars and trucks during those field exercises. During their training sessions, Faith had thought about setting up on the roof of the strip mall, but Michael pointed out that they would be trapped up there if they got swarmed and they would have to jump off the roof to retreat.

That field training was now paying dividends as each fire team was able to quickly arrive at its position and setup their weapons to cover their fields of fire. It almost felt like another field exercise, except for the explosions going off, the roar of Turok-Hans echoing through the night and the eerie light cast by the mortar illumination rounds going off.

The plan was to force the enemy out the front door of the school, through the mine fields and into the fire teams. The fire teams had been dispersed into a loose horseshoe shape with the opening facing towards the high school. There were going to be gaps between the fire teams and Michael had planned for that with more IED's in barrels that could be quickly placed to cover those gaps. Adriana would have fire control and could detonate if large groups of vampires swarmed into those gaps. Michael would be the fire brigade moving to support each fire team and contain the gaps.

* * *

"Detonating Omega field" Adriana reported over the com channel as more explosions went off.

That was the last mine field. After that, all that was left to face the oncoming horde was the fire teams and a single Spartan…


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

The hordes were streaming towards the fire teams. Michael was monitoring their advance. He called out over the com channels to check in with all the fire teams, "All teams, report your status?"

Each team reported their status back to Michael.

"Team Bravo in position and ready." Buffy replied.

"Team Fox in position and 5 by 5." Faith reported, bringing a smile to Michael.

"Team George in position and ready." Giles reported in.

"Team Spike ready to go." replied Spike.

"Team Xray ready." replied Xander.

Michael spoke again to all teams, "Okay everyone, remember your training and don't panic. The mission is simple… If it comes into your field of fire… Kill it!"

Each team prepared for the oncoming horde and each person had a moment to think…

Xander had a moment to ponder his life… "_I wish I had married Anya._" he thought.

Buffy thought, "_I never thought it would be like this… but then again I have lived longer than any other Slayer._"

Giles had a moment to reflect on his life and found that he had only a couple of regrets, which on the whole wasn't too bad he thought.

Spike had no real insights, he just wanted to start the fight as he owed payback to The First for his kidnapping and torture.

Faith was thinking that whatever happened today, that she had been really lucky to have meet and fallen in love with a man like Michael.

Michael was thinking about the horde of evil rushing towards them and what tactics would be employed, but he took a moment to look at a specific transponder signal displayed on his helmet sensor display and smile…

* * *

_The Turok-Hans moved away where all the fire and death was and towards where there were humans. They could smell the blood and fear of the humans… They moved with purpose and spread out in all directions towards the humans to feed on them... They could see them now as they got closer… They would feed on the human blood soon… They would revel in the death they would bring… They did not notice the curved metal plates on little tripods in front of them that had the words "Front toward Enemy"...  
_

* * *

The claymore mines that each fire team planted in front of their positions went off like a shotgun blast into the Ubervampires. The deafening explosions shredded the lead ranks of the Ubervampires either crippling them or turning them to dust. That was the signal for the teams to open fire…

The miniguns opened up providing their own particular sound to the battle… The miniguns had been loaded up with mix of armor-piercing, high explosive and incendiary rounds. The effect was tremendous as the miniguns shredded through the ranks of Ubervampires. The horde continued to advance towards each of the fire team's positions…

It was at this point that each person opened up with their assault weapon. Everyone had been drilled on fire discipline, they were set to fire a three-shot burst. Combined with the fire of the miniguns it devastated the ranks of Ubervampires.

Michael monitored the battle from a distance, with his speed he could quickly move to any part of the battlefield. He saw each fire team throw up a wall of lead and it was cutting into the ranks of the enemy. He noticed the groups of Ubervamps that were slowly moving into the gaps between the defense positions.

Michael opened a com channel to Adriana, "Adriana, we have infiltrators moving between Fox and George teams and between Spike and Xray teams."

"I see them and I am on it." replied the AI.

Michael looked on with satisfaction as he saw some of the IED's, planted in the gaps, go off shredding those vampires.

"Time to move and clean up those gaps." thought Michael.

Michael checked his weapon and moved into the battle…

* * *

Spike was having fun. When the Spartan had shown up and brought all its plans and weapons, Spike hadn't been too impressed. But now he had to admit that this Spartan knew how to fight. He actually got into this whole team leadership role, which was completely out of character for him.

"_What the hell! Whatever it took to get a good fight in and get back at The First._" Spike thought as he fired another burst from his weapon and quickly changed ammo clips.

* * *

Faith was getting worried. Her defense position seemed to be facing the brunt of the Ubervampire horde. They were barely holding their own. She continued firing and kept on her team members to keep up their fire.

It was at this point that Murphy's Law reared its ugly head. A defective round in the minigun ammo belt caused a misfire jamming the weapon. As the gun crew cleared the jam, a couple of Ubervamps were able to reach the weapon. Faith called out a warning, but it was too late as she watched the gun crew get swarmed and mauled to death.

Faith yelled out, "Concentrate your fire on those vampires at the minigun! We have to take them out and get that gun back in action!"

Her team redirected their fire, but the ubervamps seemed to have detected the slacking of fire from Faith's position and were now moving on mass towards her and her team…

Faith was seeing waves of death coming towards her. She moved to a different position to help with some of her team concentrate their fire. She looked over to her left and saw her second in command, a potential named Kathy, get pulled away and killed.

Her defense position was falling apart and she didn't know how much longer they could hold.

She opened a com channel to Michael, "Fox-Team calling Sierra-113 do you read me? Michael? Can you read me? We are getting our asses handed to us. We need you now!"

Faith changed positions again to help provide fire against the Ubervamps that were swarming over the barricades, she was still calling out for Michael on the com channel…


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

I was in a predicament… I heard Faith calling for me on the command channel, but I was busy doing clean up on a group of Ubervamps that had broken away and were trying to make their way between some of the fire teams…

Faith's call for support became more urgent… "Michael… we need your help now! We are getting swamped here and could use your help."

"I'm on my way… hang in there…" I responded.

I fired another quick burst from my pulse rifle, dusting the last Ubervamp. I turned and started running towards Faith's position. I was just getting up to speed.

"Faith, I'm coming to support your group… Just hang on I'll be there in less than 2…"

"Michael, better hurry and get your ass here… these bastards are all over the place. I don't…."

Faith's communication was cut-off in mid-sentence. On my helmet sensor display, the transponder, I placed in Faith's armor, went dark and reported her status as a flat line…

"Faith? Faith? Faith are you there? Come in Faith..." I called out over the com channel.

It was the strangest feeling… I could feel myself becoming detached… it was like looking at someone else… I was calling Faith's name and the tone was changing into a more desperate pleading tone… it was nothing like I had ever used or heard myself use before.

There was no response from Faith and I felt a sickening feeling building up…

Suddenly there was the sound of someone else speaking on the command channel. It was the voice of one of the potentials. I couldn't recall who the voice belonged to. The voice called out in panic and desperation.

"Faith is down… Faith is down… I think she's dead… What do we do? Someone help us!"

It was like the whole world had fallen in on me… I came to a complete stop in shock… "Faith dead…" I thought.

Then it hit me… The feeling of complete and utter failure… In all my years of fighting the Covenant, I had lost people, friends and battles, but I had never felt complete failure before… I had failed Faith… I had failed to protect her… I had failed the person that had meant the universe to me… I had failed the one I loved…

Michael did something that no Spartan had ever done in years of battle… His arms dropped loosely to his sides… he dropped his weapon, he couldn't hold on to it anymore… He fell to his knees. He grabbed his head and screamed… Everyone could hear the scream over the com channels… It was a howl of pain and rage at the universe…

Adriana in the command center had been monitoring all communication and had heard the exchange and saw what had happened to Faith's transponder. She heard Michael's scream over the communication channel… she tried to call to him.

"Sierra-113 respond… Sierra-113 please respond… Michael please respond."

It seemed as time had stopped for me… I could hear Adriana call out to me… I could hear the concern and pleading tone in her electronic voice, but I couldn't answer…

I pulled my helmet off and dropped it on the ground next to me. I was on the ground on my knees feeling abject failure… the fight was over… I leaned over and threw up…

"So the great warrior has no fight left? No great words? No pithy statements?" a voice called out over the noise of the battle field.

I leaned back… tears ran down my face. I looked into the face of evil…

"You failed her as you have failed everyone else…" came the taunting voice.

"I will feed on all their souls… but I will enjoy feasting on your slayer's soul the most… I will make you watch as I play and torment it…"

The true face of evil started to shift form… The first could assume the form of those that were dead and usually chose someone that was known to better torture and torment its intended victim… The first started to assume the shape of Faith and started to speak with her voice, the taunting continued…

"Where were you… You said you would protect me… You said you would be there for me and here you are on your knees puking your guts out and crying like a baby… Some protector… and to think that I said I loved you… what a pitiful excuse for a human being… you are more freak than human… a botched science experiment…"

Something snapped in Michael… The years of combat seeing all the death, destruction, pain and suffering. Finally coming to this universe and finding Faith… finding the one person he could find peace, happiness and love with… Knowing that he had failed her… All that weighed on Michael and for all his enhancements and augmentation… he was still human.

"Nooooooo!" as I howled in rage.

The First in the form of the woman I loved stared and smirked at me.

Michael picked up his helmet and put it back on.

I could still hear Adriana calling out on the com channel for me… I heard the other confused desperate voices on the com channels… I didn't care anymore… There was only one thought running through my mind… only one purpose.

_"The First may be the source of all evil, but I am death…"_

I responded to The First, I could hear my voice devoid of all human compassion. There was feeling, but it was a feeling of rage and death… "Death is coming… I'm coming for you… I'll see you in hell." I picked up my weapon and stood up. I started to run back into the battle.

Adriana back in the command center had been monitoring the exchange between Michael and the First… She heard Michael's statement and the tone. In all the years that she had known Michael, she had never heard him speak that way or in that tone…

"Oh my god…"

Those in the command center turned or looked up from their work as they heard the AI speak out. Just to hear a computer construct speak out using the lord's name and with such emotion was a moment of understanding of how advanced and how human Adriana was.

Willow approached Adriana, she had heard and knew that Faith was gone, but she had not heard what had transpired between Michael and The First. "What's wrong? Adriana… What's happening?"

Adriana turned and looked at Willow… Willow was shocked she had never seen a look of sadness on an artificial intelligence before…

"Adriana, what's happening?" demanded Willow.

"It's Michael… You know it all my years having been with Michael… the years of compiling and reviewing Spartan combat reports…. The time spent talking to my AI counterparts about their experiences with Spartans… I cannot recall one time where a Spartan was faced with a situation like this…"

The AI continued, "The Spartans were separated from their families to avoid the emotional complications. Their loyalties were to the mission and humanity…" Adriana paused and then continued, "This universe is about to see how angry a Spartan can get and what they are capable of…"

Willow's eyes widened at Adriana's statement…

* * *

There was only one thought… only one purpose… KILL'EM ALL!

I ran with a purpose… my weapon was like a scythe. Everything that was a target… anything that was an enemy was killed… There was no thought of remorse… no pity… no thoughts of tomorrow… There was only the killing.

An Ubervamp jumped out from the rubble and attacked. I brought up my weapon, but the monster knocked the weapon away. The vampire thought it had the advantage, but this wasn't a normal person that the vampire was facing. This was a Spartan in a killing blood lust.

The vampire struck me, but I just shrugged off the blow. I got the vampire in a hold and picked it up and lifted the monster above my head, all the while the vampire struggled in vain against my grip.

I brought the vampire down hard in a back-breaker move slamming the Turok-Han with all my force against my armored knee. There was a loud crack as the vampire's back snapped from the force of the crushing blow. The creature lay on the ground like a broken rag doll, but it was still not dead. I showed nor felt any emotion. I leaned down and put both hands around the Turok-Han's head and in one motion did a twisting pulling motion and popped the monster's head off. The Turok-Han had only a brief moment to show surprise on its face before the head and the rest of the body turned to dust. I picked up my weapon and continued my advance.

* * *

I approached the area where Faith's fire team had been holding. I didn't look for her body. There was no point… there was only one purpose now.

As I got closer, I saw that the remnants of the fire team were barely holding on in the rubble and buildings in the strip mall… I analyzed in a detached way the situation. The Ubervamps were coming over the barricades the fire team had assembled for their original firing positions. I saw a minigun that was knocked over and that it had been abandoned as the fire team got swarmed.

I adjusted my run towards the minigun position, still firing short bursts from my pulse rifle killing everything in my path. I pulled a grenade out and tossed it just over the barricade from the mini-gun. The explosion shredded a couple of vampires and I fired a burst into those remaining vampires. I reached the minigun and in one motion shouldered my pulse rifle and picked up the minigun from the ground and leaped up on the barricade.

Those that witnessed the move couldn't believe that someone could move that fast and do all that in one fluid movement.

I was on top of the barricade. I could see the waves of Ubervampires and Bringers coming out of the Hellmouth.

I yelled at them making sure that my external speakers were at maximum volume. I wanted their undivided attention. "Come on you bastards! You want a piece of me… well come and get it!"

That seemed to get their attention as they turned and started to swarm towards me. I smiled, but it was not a smile of joy or love… It was a smile of anticipation… It was the smile of death… I pressed the fire button on the minigun.

The minigun let out a stream of death. The ammo used was the standard mix of incendiary, high explosive and armor piercing. It was death to the vampires and Bringers and they died in droves leaving a dust storm…

* * *

None of this bothered Michael. His suit sensors could see through the dust storm he was creating to pick out and identify his targets, especially those that got closer. The years of training as a Spartan was not forgotten in his rage and killing lust. He maintained his fire discipline and kept using short bursts as he wanted to kill and keep on killing… he didn't want to stop.

Adriana still kept trying to get Michael to respond to her com channel queries, but there was no reply back. She could at least tell he was still alive from monitoring remotely his armor and personal status.

Michael kept killing and the survivors of Faith's fire team were still in the fight as they were adding their weight of fire and helping with the defense, but the focus was on Michael. A lone Spartan standing against a tidal wave of evil and death…

* * *

My training and detached rational tone told me that I couldn't hold out forever like this. I was getting down to the last 200 rounds for the minigun… The situation was still desperate and desperate situations required desperate responses and there was one response left… I opened a com channel to Adriana.

"Adriana… This is Sierra-113." Adriana was glad to have Michael respond finally, but the tone was not like him, it sounded dead and lifeless.

"Sierra-113 this Adriana… Michael I am so glad to hear…" Adriana started to say.

"Adriana… This is Sierra-113… Authenticate Spartan command voice authority…" as Michael interrupted Adriana.

Adriana was a little taken aback by Michael's response, but she continued on, "Spartan command authority authenticated… Provide input command authentication."

"This is a command authority override… Override code is Bravo-Tango-Sierra–Zero-One-One-Three. Do you authenticate?"

"Authentication code is valid… Michael what are you doing?" responded a now very worried Adriana.

"Implement Case Ragnarok… I repeat implement Case Ragnarok… Arm the warhead… set timer for 15 minutes and wait for execution authority. Understood?"

"Michael… you cannot be thinking or even serious of doing this?" as Adriana started to question her orders and Michael.

"This is a Spartan command authority override… You will carry out the order." The tone was with such finality that there would be no further discussion or questioning.

"Yes Michael… Understood." said the somber AI

Willow overhearing the conversation between Adriana and Michael was worried and confused.

She approached the somber looking AI. "What's going on Adriana? What's this Case Ragnarok? What warhead?"

Adriana turned and spoke to Willow and she also opened a com channel to Buffy, Giles, Xander and Spike out on the battlefield, so that they would know what was going to happen.

"Under Spartan command authority… Sierra-113 has invoked deployment of nuclear weapons on the battlefield…" Adriana paused as she saw Willow's eyes widen at the implication of what was happening.

Buffy cut into the conversation… "What the hell is going on? Adriana… What is Michael doing? He can't be serious?"

Xander currently under cover and keeping up with the current event situation thought to himself… "_Oh yea… he's serious… World War Hell has broken out and the woman he loves just died… who wouldn't want to use nukes… it all makes a sort of crazy sense in this insane situation._"

Willow interjected…"How can he do this… he doesn't have nuclear weapons… does he?"

Adriana continued on with the briefing, "…as Michael and I became more aware of the situation here in Sunnydale and with the Hellmouth, we devised Case Ragnarok as an operations plan to deal with a contingency where an event/situation could not be contained within the Hellmouth or Sunnydale and there was extreme danger to the survival of the human race…"

Adriana paused and then continued, "…a high yield 50 kiloton nuclear warhead was "obtained" and modified to be used as a portable battlefield weapon."

Adriana could hear the shock and questions coming over the com channels, she ignored them and continued, "…with implementation of Case Ragnarok, the warhead is now armed and active. A delay timer is now on a 15 minute count down hold… All fire teams will now fall back to alternate designated defense positions to seek shelter and protection from…."

"Seek shelter and protection from a bloody nuclear bomb! Are you bloody kidding me!" Spike interrupted.

Adriana ignored Spike's outburst and continued on, "… all fire teams will seek shelter and protection at alternate designated defense positions from nuclear blast and radiation… The Spartan will take the warhead into the Hellmouth to place as far as possible to ensure closure of the Hellmouth…"

There was silence on the com channel… The realization of what was said was sinking in. Michael was going to take a nuclear bomb into the Hellmouth and he wasn't coming back…


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

_One moment Faith was talking to Michael to get him to hurry to her and then there was a flash and bright light... Faith felt like she was floating as if in a dream. She felt happy and content. The light was bright and warm. She wondered where Michael was and what was keeping him. She just wanted to be with Michael. There was a buzzing noise that started getting louder… The noise was made up of voices… She couldn't make out who the voices were or most of the conversations, but certain words caught her attention… Ragnarok… Hellmouth… Michael… Bomb…_

* * *

As the word spread that Michael was going into the Hellmouth, all the fire teams started to fall back to their alternate fire positions. No one knew what was going to happen when the nuke went off and everyone wanted to be as far away as possible.

The remnants of Faith's fire team gathered and prepared to fall back. The majority of Ubervamps had either been killed or were chasing after the Spartan as he advanced towards the Hellmouth. Kylie had been Faith's third in the chain of command of the fire team and had moved up to number 2 as the other potentials had gone down. She had been managing up until an explosion went off by Faith and had thrown her 20 feet into a brick wall. She had done a quick check and had not gotten a pulse from Faith. It was her call out that had let everyone know that Faith was gone.

For a few moments she was at panic's edge and did not know what was going to happen next and then the Spartan came roaring in like a God of War killing all the Ubervamps. She had never seen anything like it in her life. She was mesmerized by how the Spartan stood its ground killing wave after wave of vampires.

She managed to get her senses back and had the survivors of the fire team provide cover fire for the Spartan. They were just barely hanging on when the call went out for the fire teams to withdraw. She heard the conversations on the com channel and about "Case Ragnarok". Kylie watched as the Spartan began its advance toward the Hellmouth.

She called out to the rest of the fire team, "You heard the call, time to fall back. Everybody get ready to move." She heard the affirmatives from everyone.

The team started to move, Kylie looked towards where Faith's body laid. She couldn't leave Faith's body behind. She called out to the team and pointed to two potentials, "You two, I need your help carrying out Faith… The rest of you cover us to the fall back point."

One of the potentials piped up, "But she's dead, why we wasting time with her?"

Kylie couldn't explain it and didn't have time to try, "Just do it, we owe her that much to not leave her here."

Kylie and the other two potentials slung their weapons and went and picked up Faith's body. The team started making its way to the alternate defense position, which was hopefully outside the nuke blast radius...

* * *

_Faith could feel herself floating. She kept wondering what was keeping Michael from her. There was still a bright light and the buzzing noise was becoming clearer. She could make out the voices of the potentials from her fire team. She heard one of them say "…not leave her here." She wondered why they would leave her behind, Michael was coming to get her and then they could be together and watch the night sky forever…_

* * *

Kylie and the fire team made it to their alternate defense position with Faith's body. Kylie heard the AI Adriana do a roll call of the fire teams and ask for a status update. Kylie responded for the fire team, "Fox Team in place… There are 6 of us left… We recovered Faith's body."

Buffy was listening in on the channel and heard Kylie's update, she turned to her second-in-command, a potential named Samantha, "Sam, take charge and hold here… I need to go over and check with Fox Team."

Samantha understood what Buffy wanted and said, "No problem, we'll hold here until you are back. Call if you need anything."

Buffy made her way over to Fox Team's position. She ran into a couple of Ubervamp stragglers in the ruins. She made quick work of them.

Buffy reached the position and as she got closer she saw Faith's body lying there. They had placed her body in a comfortable position and placed her arms crossing over each other. Buffy couldn't believe that Faith was gone… She looked so at peace. Buffy knelt down bedside Faith's body. She reached out and placed her hand on Faith's hand...

* * *

_Faith could feel herself drifting away, she was losing all connection with reality, but she didn't mind. It was a happy feeling, now if only Michael would show up…_

* * *

Buffy felt Faith's hand. It was warm… Buffy had been around enough dead bodies to know that Faith should be cold by now. Buffy reached in and felt again for a pulse… there… weak, but still a pulse.

Buffy cried out, "Where's your med-kit? Faith is still alive!"

It took a moment for what Buffy said to register with everyone and immediately Kylie grabbed a med-kit and was beside Faith opening the kit and spilling out the contents. Buffy recalling the training they had received on treating combat wounds said, "We need to stabilize her heart beat and pulse… Pass me the adrenaline and the portable heart defibrillator."

Buffy stuck the needle full of adrenaline into Faith's arm and Kylie got the defibrillator ready by placing the pads on Faith's chest. Kylie charged up the device and yelled "Clear!" and then hit the button to shock Faith's heart...

* * *

_Faith felt the floating feeling disappear, she suddenly felt like she was being pulled down. She didn't want the feeling to go away. Where was Michael? Was he ever going to come to her?_

* * *

"Shock her again!" Buffy told Kylie. Kylie charged up the defibrillator and prepared to shock Faith again.

"Clear" Kylie called and hit the button again…

"Pulse appears steady…" as Buffy checked Faith. It appeared that Faith was coming around.

Faith opened her eyes and wasn't sure what was happening. She was showing signs of disorientation. Buffy talked to Faith, "Faith can you hear me? Can you understand me?"

Faith nodded her head, "Not quite feeling 5 by 5… What happened?

Kylie spoke to explain, "An explosion went off by you and threw you about 20 feet into a brick wall. We checked and there was no pulse… you were dead."

"Explosion?" as Faith was trying to get her senses back.

"Looks like there was a leaking gas line… A spark set it off" Kylie explained.

Faith started to sit up to look around. "Where are we? This isn't our defense position. Where's Michael? He was coming to support us."

Kylie and Buffy just looked at each other uncomfortably. Faith saw the look between them and felt a cold chill. Faith got more demanding, "What happened? Where's Michael?"

Kylie got up to leave and Buffy decided to not hold back anything from Faith, she deserved the truth.

"We… Michael thought you were dead… He completely lost it. He got to your team's positions and he went berserk… He's killed every Ubervamp in sight and…" Buffy hesitated as she spoke.

"…And what?" demanded Faith.

"Michael and Adriana had a last ditch plan in the event that something like this happened. They called it "Case Ragnarok". Michael has taken a nuclear weapon into the Hellmouth to blow it up from the inside. He's got almost all of the remaining Ubervamps chasing after him. We have moved back to an area outside the blast zone…" Buffy explained.

Faith just stared at Buffy in complete shock and denial, "You're lying to me… Michael wouldn't do anything like that… He wouldn't leave me… He loves me and said he would never leave me."

Buffy just nodded her head sadly, "He thought you were dead and he is determined to exact his pound of flesh from The First and the Hellmouth."

"Has he set off the nuke yet?" asked Faith.

"No… He headed in over 25 minutes ago. There is a 15 minute timer set, but we haven't heard a word since the call went out." Buffy said.

Faith pleaded, "B… Give me your headset… I need to talk to Michael… I need to get him to come back before it's too late."

Faith got on the headset and immediately called out for Michael...

* * *

I headed into the Hellmouth, it wasn't that impressive. In my time as a Spartan, I had been in stranger and harsher environments while fighting the Covenant. I had lost count of the number of orbital drops I had done, talk about an elevator ride to hell…

I kept my run at a good pace, it was hard for the vampires and bringers behind me to catch up and it was easy to chase down and kill those in front of me. I had only stopped once and that was to pick up the armed nuke from its hiding place near the high school. The original plan called for the nuke to be detonated outside the school, but my blood lust called for vengeance. I wanted to shove the nuke right up The First's ass or at least put it in close proximity.

I had no thoughts of escape or of any tomorrows. Those thoughts were dead with Faith, I had failed her and I wasn't going to fail anyone else. I was going to put an end to this once and for all.

I continued my descent into the Hellmouth…

* * *

I was moving at a good pace through the Hellmouth. The sensors on my suit had determined the most optimum placement area for the nuke to detonate and collapse the Hellmouth, but minimize the damage to the surface. The NAV point for the deployment area was plotted on my helmet display. The nuke was strapped to my back, it was heavy and cumbersome, but nothing that I couldn't handle.

The Hellmouth was laid out as a system of tunnels and I was headed further down into its core. A few Ubervampires would try to jump me, with bad results for them. My forward sensors weren't showing that many red hostile targets in front of me, but my sensors were showing a different story behind me, it was a massive solid display of red targets trying to catch up to me… They were about 300m behind and rushing fast to catch up.

I think that I had finally pissed them off enough now and they really wanted my blood. From the sensor readouts it appeared that most of the Ubervamps from the surface had followed me down.

I knew that when I reached the target area, I was going to have to guard the nuke after planting it… I had to make sure that they couldn't get it out before it went off. I made sure that the targeting position took that into account… I wasn't going anywhere once I got there… I knew that this had always been a one way mission, besides there was nothing left for me on the surface… I was so tired of the fighting and death… The one person I had ever loved had been taken from me…

I was lost in my thoughts that I was momentarily startled when a beep went off in my helmet. It was the NAV system telling me that I was less than 500m from the target area. My sensor display still showed a huge blob of red hostile targets behind me. I wasn't going to have much time to plant and set the nuke. Once the timer started it was on a 15 minute countdown that couldn't be stopped…

* * *

The NAV marker on my helmet HUD showed I had reached the target point. I was in a cul-de-sac area. I quickly dropped the nuke and opened the case… Everything was showing green on the nuke… I typed in the go code on the keypad and watched as the timer started its 15:00 minute countdown… 14:59… 14:58… I had the timer countdown displayed on my helmet as well.

I watched my sensor display and the horde of Ubervamps would soon be on me. I checked my pulse rifle and shotgun and made sure that they had full weapon loads. I could hear the roar of the vampires as they got closer…

14:01... 14:00… 13:59…

The first group of Ubervamps came towards me and I greeted them with a grenade from my grenade launcher…

13:33… 13:32… 13:31...

More came running and I fired quick bursts from my pulse rifle, aiming for their head and chest areas… I was shredding through the horde. I checked my sensor display and it was now a massive collection of red targets all around me…

12:21… 12:20… 12:19…

I was lucky that the Ubervamps could only approach from one direction… One way in and one way out… I launched another grenade and watched the Ubervampires get shredded with satisfaction…

10:03… 10:02… 10:01…

I just kept killing and killing… The timer kept counting down…

7:42… 7:41… 7:40…

I could hear static coming through my com channel… I had been running dark since I started this run and Adriana knew not to call… I could hear a faint voice… I got my com system to try and clear up the signal… A voice that I thought was gone came through my com system…

"Michael… Do you hear me? Michael… For the love of God please respond!"

This had to be some sort of trick by The First, but the voice... the tone in the voice… I could hear the pleading for me to answer her.

6:58… 6:57… 6:56…

"Michael… This is Faith… What are you doing? Come back…!"

It had to be a trick, but I had to answer her…

"Faith?" I replied back.

"Oh Thank God Michael!" came the response.

I couldn't believe it… Faith was alive…

6:42… 6:41… 6:40…

I saw the timer. The math was cruel… I knew that it had taken me over 20 minutes to get to the target area and that was mostly downhill… I would cross universes for her… It was time to leave…

"Faith… I'm so glad to hear your voice. I'm coming…"

6:01… 6:00… 5:59…

I fired several grenades from my grenade launcher to clear my exit and then held down the trigger on my pulse rifle and emptied the remaining clip in precious seconds… I started to run for the exit drawing my shotgun and shouldering my pulse rifle in a single motion…

An Ubervamp jumped into my way to block me… I pulled the trigger and blew its head off before it even knew what hit it…

I sprinted through the hordes of Ubervampires either knocking them down with my armor or blowing them away with my shotgun…

I ran for the surface… I ran towards Faith…

4:00… 3:59… 3:58…

* * *

"Michael, you do not have enough time to clear the blast area." Adriana's voice came over the com channel.

I was running faster than any Spartan had ever run in full battle armor, yet I knew it wasn't fast enough to exit the Hellmouth and the blast area. As I always had done, I quickly looked at my options and gauged the chances of success… the list was very short.

Faith was hurting from the explosion that had flung her into the brick wall, but that hurt was minor compared with the pain, she was experiencing knowing that Michael wasn't going to escape the Hellmouth in time. She was living a nightmare with no escape…

* * *

I saw the countdown timer on my helmet HUD hit 30 seconds… Time seemed to slow down (even slower than usually for a Spartan). There was only option left… a very risky option, but there was still a chance, I changed my running direction for a small ledge…

I could hear Faith's voice over my com system pleading with me, "Michael… Please… Please don't leave me… I love you!"

With 10 seconds left on the timer, I hit the ledge and gained some air. I had calculated my landing spot and the timing. I started to assume a tuck position in mid-air. The shields on my battle armor started to glow and crackle from an energy build up. I reached for an object attached to my utility belt.

As I hit the ground I transferred all my suit energy into my shields. I pressed the button on the grenade-shaped device and slammed it into the ground.

I called out to Faith over the com channel. "Faith, I love you! I will…"

Michael's message was cut-off by the electro-magnetic pulse as the nuke detonated inside the Hellmouth.

Michael's whole world turned into a bright white light and then there was darkness…

* * *

Everyone witnessed the bright light glow from the Hellmouth and then saw the land, the high school heave into the air like a giant bubble expanding and then everything collapsed in on itself.

It seemed at first that that whole city was going to be taken out by the blast and sucked into the Hellmouth. But that anxiety turned to relief as the explosion and collapse of the land was contained to a small area. Any Bringers or Turok-Hans that were in the blast area were either sucked into the collapsing Hellmouth and were buried and crushed by the tons of debris.

Everyone was dumb struck by what they had just witnessed. Faith stared at the place where Michael had just been… Tears rolled down her face… She tried to scream… tried to call his name, but no sound could come out, she collapsed to her knees and the only sound that could come out of her was heavy sobbing.

Back in the warehouse in the command center, Adriana was stunned speechless. She tried to communicate to Michael over Spartan com channels. All she got in reply was static. She hung her head somberly as she fully grasped the realization that Michael was gone. The others in the command center couldn't believe that an AI construct could even feel such emotions.

Faith continued to sob on her knees and the others around her could only stare at the Hellmouth.

Finally Buffy and a couple of other potentials helped pick up Faith and lead her out of the battle area. There were still some Bringers and vampires moving around in the rubble and there were mopping up operations to be done to make sure none were left alive on this side of the Hellmouth.

Buffy asked Giles, Xander and Spike to oversee the clean-up operations and then get a head count of survivors. She was going to take Faith back to the warehouse and that everyone should meet up there afterwards. The men quietly agreed and went about the needed work.

Faith continued sobbing…


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

_"To maintain morale among the forces of the UNSC, any Spartan casualties are to be listed as Missing In Action (MIA) or Wounded In Action (WIA), but never Killed In Action (KIA)." - ONI Directive 930 issued in 2547_

_**Sunnydale, California – December 18, 2003 – 0437 PST**_

Adriana was surfing the electronic data highways absorbing information from around the world. She enjoyed the freedom of accessing all this information, but she let out the equivalent of an electronic sigh. It had been 6 months since the battle of the Hellmouth and the destruction of the Bringers and Turok-Hans.

Michael's self-sacrifice of detonating the nuclear warhead inside the Hellmouth had sealed it up and had cut off The First from its minions. The clean-up of the remaining Turok-Hans and Bringers had been quick, nasty and merciless.

The Hellmouth had been quiet with no activity since then. The group had settled down into a routine of training and monitoring and keeping a very low profile.

After the nuke had gone off closing the Hellmouth, the US Army had moved in and sealed up the area. Strangely other than taking some readings and a few samples, they had not pushed the investigation hard. With a little bit of digging the authorities would have ended up at the warehouse and everyone had tensed up preparing for that confrontation, but it never came.

After a couple weeks of investigation, the Army put out the story that Sunnydale had experienced a seismic event that had ruptured a previously unknown pocket of volatile natural gas that caused an underground explosion that further damaged underground natural gas lines resulting in the destruction of a large portion of Sunnydale. It had seemed that the government had been relieved to put out the story and move on without any further questions and investigation.

Since then some of the former residents had moved back in an attempt to rebuild Sunnydale and their lives. There was a feeling of optimism in the air, but a cloud hung over Adriana and the whole group. There had been a large number of causalities, but Michael's death had been the hardest to take.

Adriana felt the sorrow of Michael's loss. She found that she had lost a few milliseconds of concentration and focus. She didn't find the same enjoyment of information access as she once did.

Adriana noted that each person in the group had dealt with their grief in their own way.

Giles had taken to further study and conversing with Adriana on numerous topics, especially the legends and myths from her universe. Giles even provided somewhat of a challenge in playing chess with her.

Xander was training and working out. He was also keeping busy being involved with the reconstruction of Sunnydale. He was spending more time with Anya as they had both settled back into a steady and comfortable relationship.

Dawn was busy with training and getting an education. Buffy and Giles had both insisted that she continue with her education. Adriana had developed a curriculum for Dawn and also each of the potentials based on individual psych profiles.

Willow was busy continuing to explore, develop and control her magic powers. She also spent a lot of time talking technical subjects with Adriana. Willow was also developing a relationship with one of the potentials named Kennedy.

Spike was… well… Spike. Adriana couldn't begin to fathom Spike and his behavior. It was evident that Spike loved Buffy deeply, but he tried to put up an air of indifference. He stayed and helped with maintaining order and protecting the population, but Adriana suspected that Spike's main motivation was and would always be Buffy. If anyone was handling the situation with any sense of normality it was Spike.

Buffy was coping with the situation and responsibility that had been dropped on her shoulders. Her exposure to what a "real battle" was and the terrible responsibility that came with leading troops into battle had weighed heavily on her, but she developed a better understanding of herself and found her digging deeper into herself to find the courage and strength needed. She kept herself busy with her training, overseeing the potentials continuing training and most importantly making sure that Dawn got an education and had some semblance of a normal life. Buffy was also taking a lead with the rebuilding effort and just worrying about everyone in general.

Each of them were at least moving on or coping with their situation. If there was someone to be concerned about it was Faith. Faith had been inconsolable after Michael's death. She had spent several days locked in their room and when she came out, she had barely said two words to anyone. Everyone had tried to engage and help her, but it was as if Faith had died that day with Michael.

It had gone on for about a month after Michael's death and then one day Faith had just announced that she was leaving. There had been a brief discussion, but Faith had stated that she couldn't stay in Sunnydale anymore and she left the next day.

Adriana had tried to keep track of Faith, but Faith had been determined to lose herself. Adriana had tracked Faith to Los Angeles and then she had dropped off the grid. Adriana still devoted some cycle time to trying to locate Faith with no success.

With all that was going on, Adriana still surfed through networks around the world to learn and absorb more data.

Adriana sighed again, she thought she would check out the US defense networks. She had maintained a low profile on the US government networks. With everything that had happened, she wanted to avoid causing any "incidents" and attracting unwanted investigations.

She accessed the back door that she had left for herself on the network. She enjoyed accessing the military networks as it at least brought some familiarity from her universe.

As she accessed the gigabits of data, she came across an electronic email sent from a computer tech working for DARPA referring to recovered material from the "Sunnydale Event". This intrigued Adriana, she had found the DARPA networks and data always interesting, but she had to be extra careful on their networks to avoid detection.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

_**Los Angeles, California – February 9, 2004 – 1522 PST**_

Buffy walked into the run down hotel. It was pretty dank and depressing. There were smells that she couldn't recognize and that she didn't want to know what or where they came from. When Faith left Sunnydale, Adriana had tracked her as far as LA and then she fell off the grid. Adriana had no leads on where Faith had gone and what had happened to her, so Buffy was not completely surprised when she got a call from Angel saying that he knew where Faith was.

At first Buffy was tempted to just leave Faith alone and hopefully she could work through her sorrow and mourning, but from the tone in Angel's voice and that he didn't want to go into details over the phone meant that Faith was in a very bad way. Buffy could feel sympathy for Faith as she had run away too when she had been forced to kill Angel years ago and send him to a hell dimension.

"_The things men put us through… maybe Willow has the right idea._" The thought brought a smirk to Buffy's face.

Buffy recalled meeting with Angel before coming to the hotel. As always there was that underlining sexual tension between them, but this time it seemed somewhat muted as Angel described his tracking down and encounter with Faith.

"I found her hanging out in some run down hotel. Here's the address." Angel handed Buffy a note with the address of the hotel. "She has been going out and moving between clubs every night. She is running pretty wild and out of control… even for Faith."

"She's hurting bad, Angel. After what happened at the Hellmouth and with Michael dying the way he did. She's just hurting. I was hoping that with time she could move on…"

"This Michael must have been some kind of man for Faith to hurt this badly?" Angel queried. "I heard what went down, but I still find it hard to believe that someone actually nuked the Hellmouth."

"I find it hard to believe too and I was there and yeah Michael was a special kind of man. I had never seen Faith so happy…" Buffy recalled sadly.

"Well I'm glad you are here, Buffy. Faith is in a bad way and I don't know if she is going to snap out of it. I tried talking to her and she screamed at me that if I came near her again, she would stake me."

Buffy's eye widened at what Angel described. "She wouldn't do that… she couldn't do it to you before."

"I don't know Buffy… I have seen Faith being dark before, but she is in a really dark place and I don't think she is even close to hitting bottom yet."

Buffy recalled all this as she stood in front of the hotel room door that Angel had said where Faith was staying. Buffy hesitated for a moment, but the reason for being here was important. Adriana had informed everyone several days ago that she had important news about the Hellmouth. She said it was extremely important that everyone be present for her briefing. The AI refused to budge on this point, just continuing to insist that everyone (including Faith) must be present.

Buffy knocked on the door. She waited for a moment and heard no response; she started to knock again and then decided to try the door handle. The knob turned and the door opened. Buffy senses heightened, it was never a good sign when a door opened like that. She took a more cautious approach as she opened the door wider and moved into the room.

* * *

The room was dark and smelled. She got to the end of the small hall that opened up into bedroom. Buffy was ready for anything coming out of the dark, but as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw more of the room. She saw the bed and saw a naked Faith sprawled out unconscious on it with another equally unconscious and equally naked man.

Buffy grimaced in disgust at the scene and was ready to turn around and leave, but the reason for being here overrode her own personal disgust. Buffy turned and went into the equally disgusting bathroom and found a glass and filled it with cold water and returned to the bed.

"Faith, get up… Faith" Buffy tried stirring Faith and all she got was some soft moans and Buffy responded by throwing the cold water on Faith and yelling "Faith… get up now!"

The cold water and yelling brought Faith out of her stupor and she yelled, "Who… What the fuck!" The naked guy in bed barely even stirred at all the commotion.

"Wake up Faith, we are leaving…"

"Oh goodie… It's my good friend Buffy... Come to visit me and spend some time reminiscing about fun times." Faith spoke with an evident slur in her speech that spoke of too many late nights, too much alcohol and who knows what else.

"This isn't a social call Faith. We need to go back to Sunnydale. It is important that…"

"Important! What's so god-damned fucking important that would make me want to go back to Sunnydale? Can't you see that I'm doing just fine where I am?" Faith yelled back. Faith tried to stand up and it took her several attempts. "Whoa… I guess I had a little too much fun last night."

As Faith stood naked in front of her, Buffy noticed a very small tattoo on Faith's chest where her heart is (was). It was the number 113.

"All I can see is someone who is hurting and in pain…" Buffy stated.

"You know you're not so dumb for a blonde… You are god-damned right that I'm hurting. Every day is painful having to live with what I've lost. I have drunk, popped and snorted whatever I could get a hold of to try and kill the pain or at least make it go away for a while."

"You lost the man that you loved… That doesn't mean you have to stop living or doing things to destroy yourself. "Buffy stated as she motioned her head towards the still unconscious naked man in the bed.

Buffy continued, "What would Michael say if he could see what you have become?"

"Damn you… That's not fair and you have no right… you should just get out of here."

"I have every right… I have been where you have been. You had the love of your life die in front of you and you feel that the world is a dark and empty place…"

"I love… loved him so much." as Faith sat on the edge of the bed and started to cry. Buffy grabbed a blanket and draped it across Faith's shoulders to provide some comfort and dignity. Buffy sat down beside Faith.

"I know you loved him and he loved you. I had never seen you so happy, but what you are doing here is not helping yourself and it is tarnishing Michael's memory."

Faith sniffed and looked around where she was and it was like she had finally woken up from a bad dream and realized where she was and what she had done.

"Oh my god Buffy… what have I done?" as the tears flowed more freely now. "I have done things… I don't even know this guy's name" as Faith leaned her head in the direction of the still unconscious naked man in bed.

"What do I do now?" Faith leaned in as Buffy hugged her and comforted her.

"We go on and live each day. We are Slayers and we have our mission. We go back to Sunnydale; Adriana has news about the Hellmouth and won't tell anyone what's up until we are all there, including you."

Faith nodded and wiped the tears away. Faith got dressed quickly and packed up her few belongings she had and left the hotel room quickly, leaving the man in bed still naked and unconscious.

* * *

_**Sunnydale, California – February 9, 2004 – 2139 PST**_

Everyone gathered in the conference room and took up their seats. Buffy had only brought back Faith back to the warehouse several hours ago, but it was always amazing how a hot shower, clean clothes, good food and a cup of coffee could energize a person and change their demeanor. Faith was sitting between Buffy and Giles at the conference table. Xander, Willow, Spike and some of the potentials were taking their own seats.

Faith was still feeling some discomfort being back in Sunnydale and the greetings with everyone had been difficult, but Buffy was being a source of strength for her and making the transition back easier.

"_Buffy's right as always._" Faith thought. "_Michael would want me to go on and live my life and be happy, but it's so hard and I wonder if I have the strength?_"

Faith's thoughts were interrupted as Adriana's hologram appeared in the room. "I'm glad everyone is here. I have some important developments about the battle of the Hellmouth nine months ago. I have lots of information to present, so please save any comments and questions until the end of the briefing." Everyone nodded and the lights dimmed.

"We all know what happened nearly 9 months ago here." began Adriana, "but, what we didn't know is that during the battle, the US military was monitoring the battle and had deployed a large number of unmanned drones to fly over. These drones took video and monitored communications during the battle."

The people gathered mumbled at the news the AI presented.

"I was able to hack into the DOD network and retrieve this information and what I found has provided some important information on the battle."

Adriana started the video and the drone footage started and was displayed through the projector on to the big screen.

The footage started and showed the explosions and desperate fighting taking place. The sound contained the communication taking place between everyone. The video panned in and showed Michael in his battle armor running towards one of the battle areas…

The sound played out… "…Faith, I'm coming to support your group… Just hang on I'll be there in less than 2…"

"…Michael, better hurry and get your ass here… these bastards are all over the place. I don't…." the statement was cut off in mid-sentence.

"…Faith? Faith? Faith are you there? Come in Faith…" It was Michael's voice and she could hear the pain and desperation in his voice grow as he called her name with no response.

The next communication traffic was a panicky voice from one of the potentials, "…Faith is down… Faith is down… I think she's dead… What do we do? Someone help us!"

The drone video zoomed in on the Spartan and you could see the Spartan stop in his tracks and fall to his knees. Faith saw Michael take off his helmet and scream and throw up. She saw him turn and appear to be talking to someone or something… Adriana commented, "I was only able to pick up fragments of what was happening at this point from Michael's helmet com system. From what I was able to make out I deduced that the First had appeared and taunted Michael. This I believe would explain Michael's subsequent behavior."

Faith sat mesmerized as she watched the video and saw Michael pickup his helmet and put it back on, then pick up his weapon and start running back towards the battle. She watched as Michael had literally torn a Turok-Han apart with his hands. She saw when Michael reached the battle area and had picked up a minigun and stood up on top of a barricade and mowed down the vampires. Everyone sat in stunned silence as they watched the battle from upon high. They could see the waves of vampires flowing towards Michael seeking to engulf Michael and him standing as a rock against them and killing and killing. Faith's eyes glistened with tears as she watched her enraged lover kill everything in his path.

Seeing what an angry Spartan could do was a sobering sight to say the least for those watching the video.

Adriana interjected, "At this point, this is where Michael implemented "Case Ragnarok". From the video they could see Michael start his advance to the high school and Hellmouth entrance.

He stopped at a certain point and retrieved a large case. "This was the 50 kiloton nuclear warhead that had been placed there for the last-ditch contingency plan." added Adriana.

Everyone continued to watch the video as they saw Michael advance towards the school killing everything in his path. Through the collapsed roof of the high school, the drone caught sight of Michael entering the Hellmouth with the nuke strapped to his back.

The drone zoomed out and caught the raging battle continuing. The audio traffic played told of a different story that the video couldn't see.

"…Michael… This is Faith… What are you doing? Come back…!"

Faith was now caught up in the moment, she was reliving her own worse nightmare. She was hearing her call to Michael and pleas to him to come back to her.

"…Faith… I'm so glad to hear your voice. I'm coming…"

"…Michael, you do not have enough time to clear the blast area." Adriana's voice was coming over the audio.

"…Michael… please… please don't leave me… I love you!"

The tears flowed down Faith's face. She tilted her head down as she could no longer watch the projection screen. Everyone in the room was getting decidedly uncomfortable with what was going on.

Adriana paused the video and started speaking. "We all know the last few moments and the conversation before the nuclear weapon detonated."

Giles decided to interrupt the AI for Faith's sake and peace of mind, "Yes, Adriana we all know what happened, but what is the point of showing us this? Surely we don't all have to be here to view this and relive what for some of us are very emotional and traumatic events?

"I am getting to that…" the AI replied. "The drone caught the final moments of video and audio before the detonation and the EMP caused the drone to fail and crash. The US military recovered the drone but the last moments of data were not recoverable. Fortunately I have more experience and tools for data recovery and was able to get the data back. Here are the last few moments before detonation." Adriana resumed the video and everyone watched.

They saw the video and heard Michael's last words to Faith… "I love you… I will find you!"

This made Faith raise her head and look at the screen. All everyone saw was a bright flash from the Hellmouth and the screen display disappear.

Adriana commented, "I used imaging technology to zoom in and enhance the image."

She replayed the last few moments again. This time everyone could see Michael in his battle armor running and it appeared that he jumped off a small ledge. In the frame by frame movement, they saw him assume a tuck position and as he hit the ground he slammed his fist down and saw that his battle armor shields started to glow and in the distance could see in the frame the bright light from the nuclear warhead detonating.

Everyone had a questioning puzzled look on their faces. Adriana spoke, "What you are seeing is a Spartan maneuver called "Armor-Lock". It is a last ditch maneuver that is taught to Spartans. The maneuver calls for the Spartan to assume a tuck position and channel all system power into the suit's shield system. The power increase to the shields makes the Spartan temporarily indestructible, but the down side and the reason it is not used often, is that the shield power drain is enormous and lasts only for about 20 seconds, which makes the timing critical and the Spartan cannot move during this time."

Faith heard what Adriana was saying, and for a moment hope flared in her.

Adriana continued, "I have analyzed all the data and from what I was able to ascertain, I could only determine that Michael had only a 2.75% chance of survival."

The hope within Faith became stillborn.

Adriana continued on, "On further analysis and enhancement I noticed something that Michael had in his hand when he slammed it into the ground."

Adriana did a zoom enhancement of Michael's hand and everyone noticed a grenade-shaped device in it.

"As you will notice, the device in Michael's hand is larger than a standard grenade… What you are looking at is not a grenade, but is in fact a device that creates a temporary bubble shield. It is Covenant technology that creates an impenetrable shield barrier for 20 seconds."

Adriana paused for this information to sink in.

"Now knowing that Michael activated his armor-lock and a bubble shield, I have revised my original estimates and have increased Michael's chances of survival by a small margin to 16.95%

"But, knowing what Michael had done in the last few seconds before the nuke detonated, I decided to investigate further. I managed to push a communication probe with Willow's and the US military's unknowing help and broke through the radiation interference in the Hellmouth." The AI smiled as she spoke.

"I scanned all frequencies and found a looped message on an open communication channel."

The AI began the audio only message. "To anyone that receives this message, this is Sierra-113, I am a soldier with UN Space Command. I have sealed this portal with a 50 kiloton nuclear warhead. Do not uncover this portal due to the continuing danger of radiation fallout and the creatures that inhabit here. My status is nominal with all functions good. I am attempting to find an alternate way out of this place. If anyone receives this message I would ask that you contact Faith Lehane in Sunnydale, California…" There was a pause in the audio… "Tell Faith that I love her… Tell her I will find a way home to her. This is Sierra-113 out."

Everyone sat in stunned silence… The AI smiled. "That looped message was time stamped almost 9 months ago. I pushed my communication probes as far as I could and I picked up this message time stamped 8 months ago…"

The audio played again, this time it was weak and distorted, but you could still make out the voice and the intent of the message. "This is Sie.. 113, I have fou.. ..ther portal. I don't … where ... leads. I will … you Faith. I will find you…"

Adriana spoke, "If anyone can survive a nuclear explosion and travel between different universes and realities and get back here… it will be a Spartan."

Everyone sat still and stunned. The first person to speak up was Faith. "What can we do to help bring Michael home?"

With that the silence was broken and everyone started talking and plans started being discussed on what would be their next steps. There was a new hope felt by everyone and a new found optimism in the room…

Faith thought, "_I'm going to find you Michael… I'm not giving up this time!_"


	23. Chapter 23

**Epilogue**

_**Location: Unknown – Date: Unknown – Time: Unknown**_

The hunters had gathered around the fire. The fire not only provided warmth and light. It provided some protection from the night and the dangers that lurked out in the forest.

The hunting party had started back to the village too late in the day to make it back before nightfall. They all knew that it would be suicidal to try and continue on in the dark. Their only hope was to build a fire and keep alert during the night and they might just survive until the morning to make it back to their village and families.

The hunters sat around the fire listening to the sounds of the night forest. They tried to reassure each other that the dangers did not actually exist and that they were only stories told by the old ones in the village to scare the children.

The flames of the fire provided the illusion of security, as the hunters were being stalked. A pair of eyes watched from the darkness. It could smell the fear and it hungered for the taste of their flesh. The creature had no real fear of these people or any fear of anything else in the forest. It was the ultimate predator… the top of the food chain. It waited for its chance to strike.

The hunters had started to get lax as the night wore on and the creature watching them could sense that the time to strike was upon it. The creature leaped into the middle of the group letting out a deafening roar…

* * *

The hunters were fighting to stay awake and alert, but it was a losing battle. Suddenly the creature from their worst nightmares was attacking them. The four legged creature with long razor teeth and eyes that seemed to burn with fire was in the middle of their campsite. The hunters were startled and helpless. Their numbers were too few and the weapons they carried were too weak to stop this nightmare beast.

They could see their end and they all felt fear, but they were determined to fight. They formed a half circle to face the beast. The beast started to approach them. It let out a roar and started to leap towards the hunters…

Another deafening roar that the hunters had never heard before shattered the night. The night seemed to light up with streaks of light that struck the leaping beast. The creature shuddered from the impacts and fell to the ground in front of the hunters with a thud.

The hunters could only stare at the dead creature with stunned silence. Out of the darkness emerged a huge man-looking creature. Its skin was a dark shiny green that glistened in the light of the fire, but also absorbed the darkness that the creature looked like it was being swallowed by the night. The head of the man-looking creature had a huge single golden eye for its face. You could not see any expression, but when it looked at you it felt as if it was staring right into your soul.

The hunters just stood staring until the man-looking creature startled them by speaking, "Is everyone alright?"

All the hunters could do was nod in the affirmative as they were still speechless. The man-looking creature spoke again, "Good… I am here to help and I won't hurt any of you. I need to ask some questions about your world."

One of the hunters managed to speak, "Who are you? What are you?"

The man-looking creature replied, "My name is Michael and I am a Spartan…"


End file.
